Ep 102 | When Mother's Day Hurts, Modern Loss, Grief, and Finding Meaning with Rebecca Soffer

Watch on YouTube:

There is a version of Mother's Day we all know. The brunches, the bouquets, the Hallmark cards. And then there is the version so many women carry quietly underneath — the grief of a mother who is gone, of never becoming one, of a child lost, of the mother we needed and never had, and the grief of a mother who is still here but already somehow leaving.

This episode of Pleasure in the Pause makes space for that fuller truth. Host Gabriela Espinosa sits down with Rebecca Soffer, co-founder of Modern Loss and bestselling author of the Modern Loss Handbook, for one of the most tender and honest conversations this show has ever had. Whether Mother's Day brings up something heavy for you this year or you are simply learning to live alongside a loss that has no clear shape, this episode gives you permission to feel all of it.

Rebecca Soffer is cofounder of Modern Loss, a media platform and global movement offering creative, meaningful and resonant content and connection addressing the long arc of grief. She is also the author of the bestselling The Modern Loss Handbook: An Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your Resilience and of Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome, and writes the Modern Loss Substack, one of the platform's top Health and Wellness publications. Rebecca is an internationally-renowned speaker on the themes of loss, resilience, empathy and community building, known for drawing people into an uncomfortable topic with her warm and engaging style. Her writing has appeared throughout media, including in The New York Times, TIME, Glamour and NBC Think. Rebecca is a Peabody Award-winning former producer for The Colbert Report and an alumna of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.  

Together, we talk about:

✨ The many forms of Mother’s Day grief that often go unseen

✨ Grieving a mother who is still alive but changing through dementia or illness
✨ How to support someone who may be hurting this Mother’s Day
✨ Finding connection, community, and meaning after loss
✨ Why grief and pleasure can coexist

Grief does not move in a straight line. It lives in us, shifts with us, and shows up in the most unexpected moments years after we thought we had made peace with it. What changes is not that it goes away. What changes is that we get better at knowing what we need when it arrives.

If this episode resonated, subscribe to Pleasure in the Pause and share it with a woman in your life who is carrying something heavy this season. And if Mother's Day is hard for you this year for any reason at all, you are not alone in that.

CONNECT WITH REBECCA SOFFER and Modern Loss: 

Website

Instagram

Substack

Modern Loss Handbook | Book

RESOURCES:

Ep 101: Dr Bralove

Article by Colin Campbell

CONNECT WITH GABRIELLA ESPINOSA:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Work with Gabriella! 

The information shared on Pleasure in the Pause is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any decisions about your health or treatment. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host or Pleasure in the Pause.