{"id":10009,"date":"2023-08-24T08:45:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T13:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=10009"},"modified":"2023-08-24T08:45:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T13:45:51","slug":"uwl-students-collaborative-community-podcast-explores-journeys-and-resources-surrounding-grief-loss-and-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uwl-students-collaborative-community-podcast-explores-journeys-and-resources-surrounding-grief-loss-and-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"UWL student\u2019s collaborative, community podcast explores journeys and resources surrounding grief, loss and mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photo<\/a>
While Grace Wittmann\u2019s father never completed his college degree, Grace says it would make him proud to know that she will. A soon-to-be senior in UWL\u2019s public health and community health education undergraduate program in fall 2023, she is well on her way.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grace Wittmann remembers the Labor Day weekend when her life changed forever. She was 16 years old, spending time at a friend\u2019s house, a-three hour drive north of home.<\/p>\n

One morning of her trip, her mother pulled up in the car unannounced. Walking up to her daughter and wrapping her arms around her, Wittmann felt confused, \u201cWhat is it?,\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour dad,\u201d replied her mom crying. \u201cHe went to sleep and never woke up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wittmann remembers falling to her knees. From that point on, the memories are fuzzy. What followed was a year of time that is a blur except for a few key moments. She remembers the first days of her junior year of high school planning her dad\u2019s funeral. She remembers fragments of her 17th birthday. And she remembers touching her father\u2019s cold hand as he lay in front of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very close with my dad. He was my best friend,\u201d she says. \u201cMy whole world was flipped upside down.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grief energy gets some wings<\/h3>\n

Today, five years later, Wittmann, a UW-La Crosse senior, still experiences grief from losing her dad, but a new energy is building behind it. That energy has come from some unexpected collaborations, including one with a non-profit organization called\u00a0The Butterfly Path<\/a>, which provides mental health resources.<\/p>\n

Wittmann helped launch a podcast in summer 2022 with The Butterfly Path when she was involved in a Community Health Internship Program (CHIP) internship through\u00a0Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers (AHEC)<\/a>. In the internship, she was connected with four other women from several other organizations, each motivated around mental health because of their own struggles and knowledge about grief and loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe five of us sat down one day and said we want to work together,\u201d says Wittmann. \u201cWe knew we could help people, and we knew we had a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Butterfly Path has been the central organization uniting all the women toward a collective goal of helping others who are struggling with grief, loss and mental health \u2014 providing them with tools, as well as the sense that they are not alone in their struggle. The podcast, \u201cThat Foreign Feeling<\/a>,\u201d is housed on the Butterfly Path webpage where nearly 50 episodes are available for listeners.<\/p>\n

Wittmann came up with the podcast title. She says it resonates with a lot of people who have had mental health struggles that are difficult to understand and identify. For Wittmann things didn\u2019t feel normal for an extended time after her father passed. That first Christmas, Father\u2019s Day and a host of other celebrations without him left her learning to navigate new and not normal feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI experienced the first everything not having him. I didn\u2019t know how to react,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a feeling that I can\u2019t describe, but I knew it was not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is scary enough to experience the death of someone close to you, but then to have to learn to live with the aftermath of that loss is another thing entirely, she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this podcast means to me, and I hope to others, is a collective toolbox for the things we didn\u2019t ask for, but they can help us get through it and thrive in life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Wittmann\u2019s work producing the podcast is brave, says\u00a0Anders Cedergren<\/a>, UWL assistant professor and Wittmann\u2019s academic advisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI admire a person who can take something like this that must be tremendously difficult to deal with initially and may require life-long processing and turn it into a creative, positive project,\u201d he says. \u201cNot only is she actively managing her own experiences through her work, but she is also giving of herself to those around her who may be in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wittmann is one of the podcast hosts, often using her own experiences to guide interview questions with experts surrounding grief and loss experiences and resources. Episodes feature experts from UWL\u00a0Psychology Professor Ryan McKelley<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0men\u2019s mental health\u00a0<\/a>to her psychic medium,\u00a0Dawn Matzke<\/a>\u00a0and her ability to connect with the those who have died.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of Dawn, I always know that my dad is here with me. It\u2019s like that feeling you get when someone is watching you. I feel that feeling all the time,\u201d she says. \u201cDawn has given my family peace of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Where her path leads next<\/h3>\n

Wittmann will be starting her last year in UWL\u2019s\u00a0Public Health and Community Health Education program<\/a>\u00a0this fall. Her involvement with the McNair Scholars program will help her become prepared to find graduate school opportunities that align with her personal and professional drive related to grief, mental health and end-of-life care.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I believe that Grace will find success and happiness through her exploration of these topics because her interest is genuine, she is not afraid to keep learning through tough times, and she wants to share what she knows with those around her to make the world a better place,\u201d says Cedergren.<\/p>\n

Wittmann says she can see herself walking patients and families through that process of end-of-life care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a person is on life support, I want to have the conversation with the family to weigh their options,\u201d she says. \u201cI want them to know that it is not just a paycheck for me, and that I care about what is going to be best for them and their loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for the foreseeable future, Wittmann plans to keep creating podcast episodes, even though her internship ended one year ago. In addition to helping others, it\u2019s helped her cope.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome don\u2019t like to talk about it, but for me it helps. I feel less alone when I talk about it,\u201d she says. \u201cI can talk about how I went through something, and my feelings are validated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the podcast<\/h3>\n

Tune in to \u201cThat Foreign Feeling<\/a>\u201d on the website or download the podcast app on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat foreign feeling” is a podcast that makes space for conversations around mental health, grief and loss. The struggle with mental health, grief, and loss may be something you deal with on a daily basis or something you have never felt before. You may not know what you are feeling exactly, but you know that something is different. You may not be able to explain it or understand it. All of these feelings are what we call \u2018That Foreign Feeling\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Written by UW-La Crosse<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwlax.edu\/news\/posts\/that-foreign-feeling\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Wittmann remembers the Labor Day weekend when her life changed forever. She was 16 years old, spending time at a friend\u2019s house, a-three hour drive north of home. One morning of her trip, her mother pulled up in the car unannounced. Walking up to her daughter and wrapping her arms around her, Wittmann felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[104],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-10009","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-la-crosse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/10009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=10009"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=10009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}