Father-daughter grief dynamics with Dr. David and Katie Long

Welcome back to the Wake the F*** Up podcast! Our team is busy working on some great new content, and this week we wanted to replay one of our favorite past episodes, which we think is perfectly timed for Father’s Day coming up in the U.S. This episode is hosted by Dr. David Long and features a very special guest, David’s daughter Kate Long. We hope you enjoy this powerful episode about father-daughter grief dynamics, the complexities of parent-child relationships, and how families can help each other heal. We’ll be back next week with all new content, and we have some exciting plans coming up for “Man Month” throughout the month of June, combining Father’s Day with a deep dive into the male psyche. Stay tuned!

ICYMI - It’s Okay to Not Be Okay After Losing my Mom

This week on Wake the F*** Up, David’s daughter Kate Long joins her dad on the podcast for an intimate conversation about life after losing her mom, her experience in living with grief as a young person, and the challenges and joys of belding families as Alix and David started their relationship. Kate is David’s eldest child, she’s 19 and currently a freshman at UT Austin, studying Mechanical Engineering. We are so glad Kate asked to be on the podcast because this father-daughter conversation offers such a unique grief perspective.

Diving in, David and Kate talk about some of the different ways that losing Betsy affected them and their whole family dynamic. They discuss the challenges of living authentically and dealing with transitions while processing a major loss. David shared his journey of self-exploration, no longer pretending, and Kate acknowledges the similar pressures she was feeling during this period. The key takeaway here: it’s okay to not be okay.

Later in the episode, Kate shares how hard it is to be authentic in relationships after a big loss at young age, and how she’s looking for real connections, but many of her peers are in a different place emotionally because they haven’t experienced grief the way she has.

Next we dive into the transformative power of therapy! Kate discussed how going to therapy helped validate her emotions and help her cope with anxiety. They explore the benefits of therapy in normalizing emotions and improving communication skills within relationships. Kate shared how therapy helped her recognize patterns and manage intense feelings. David and Kate wrap things up talking about the importance of reaching out for support, and using different coping mechanisms that work for you. We hope you enjoy this deep father-daughter conversation about grief and living authentically. Thank you, Kate, for sharing your experience with the Wake podcast audience!

Resources for this episode:

Motherless Daughters - a good reference book for those who have lost their mothers