From Grief to Healing: Hope After Loss with Dr. Gayla Holley - Part 1

From Grief to Healing: Hope After Loss with Dr. Gayla Holley - Part 1

This episode dives deep into the challenges and triumphs of living with loss, offering a faith-centred look at grief that many people may be desperate to hear. Jenny Bushkell talks with Dr. Gayla Hawley, founder of Grief Guide Ministries, who has experienced repeated losses throughout her life, from war-time trauma and family deaths to the end of ministries and dreams. Drawing from those experiences, Dr.

Gayla talks openly about what she calls moving from "intensive grief" to "progressive grief" and how God meets people in that difficult space. You’ll hear Dr. Gayla describe her honest conversation with God after her husband died: she told Him, "I can't live with a broken heart...

You're going to have to fulfill your word and heal me, or I cannot cope." From there, she explains how Scripture became a "map out of the valley of the shadow of death," and how a flood of understanding about loss and healing eventually turned into dozens of books and grief support groups. A key message running through the conversation is that healing from loss is rooted in relationship with God, not just talking things through in an office.

As she puts it, "The only one who does [have the ability to heal] is the one who made you." She stresses shifting focus from what you don’t have to what you do have, helping people see that they still have God, their own life, and a future God has planned.

The episode will especially resonate with those facing bereavement, the loss of a dream, or major life change, and with Christians who want to understand grief through a biblical lens. It also gently challenges churches to talk more practically about death and prepare people for the emotional and spiritual impact of loss. If grief has ever made you feel stripped of everything, could it be that, as Dr. Gayla heard God say, you’re actually being equipped for a new chapter?