How Working with Illness, Death and Grief Can Lead To A Surprising Life

Aired Thursday, 5 November 2015, 10:00 PM ET

Cheryl’s will be talking about her experience of her wife’s illness and death and how that changed her. IT also connects to all the work Cheryl does now. Cheryl would love to share what makes her so impassioned about working with illness, death and grief, and the surprising life that came from loss. In that vein, it’s important not to skip over the hard work it takes to get to the point where a deeper, more meaningful life comes out of the ashes- never want to imply that process was easy for her. In fact, that is part of her message, that it is worth diving in, that emerging from loss after whatever is painful about it leads in mysterious and wonderful ways to our best lives.

About the Guest Cheryl Jones

Cheryl Jones is Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in grief. During her training, her first wife was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which was at the time a uniformly fatal illness with a six month to one year prognosis. In the eight years that followed, Cheryl engaged daily in the work of preparing for her death. She received training during this period from Stephen and Ondrea Levine (Who Dies and Grieving into Life and Death) and Richard Olney (founder of Self-Acceptance Training). After her wife’s death, Cheryl immersed herself in her own multifaceted grief, surprised by frequent moments of joy.

Along with her private practice, Cheryl is host of Good Grief Radio. Each week, she interviews a guest who has been transformed by engaging with the experience of loss. Cheryl is also the Manager of Professional Education at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center in Oakland, CA. She developed, teaches in and facilitates the Continuing Education program there and also consults and facilitates support groups there. She has trained extensively with Erving Polster, leader in the field of gestalt therapy and author of Everybody’s Life is worth a Novel.

Before becoming a therapist, Cheryl enjoyed careers as a musician, a restaurant owner and a carpenter. She still enjoys singing with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, eating eating out at outstanding Bay Area locations and remodeling her Craftsman. She lives with her wife in Oakland, California and especially savors time with her family (including 3 daughters and 2 grandsons) and friends.