Today on the Dr. K Show, Dr. Karlfeldt is joined by a very special guest, Vickie Menendez. Vickie’s appearance on the podcast centers on her deeply personal journey through profound loss and healing. Having lost both her son and father within a year—coupled with an earlier loss of a stillborn child—Vickie recounts the cascading waves of grief that shaped her perception of life and death. She discusses how her understanding of soul contracts and the nature of loss evolved, helping her reframe what initially felt like insurmountable tragedy into a catalyst for personal growth and compassion for others. As Vickie navigated her new reality, she found meaning and purpose in her hardships. Her children’s experiences became the foundation for her mission, pushing her to speak out, support, and inspire others dealing with addiction and health struggles. Vickie believes her own voice carries the lessons her children imparted in life, and she channels their energy into meaningful advocacy work, including the creation of a foundation to address seizures, asthma, and addiction—conditions central to her family’s story. A key element of Vickie’s healing has been her embrace of holistic modalities. She describes the vital role of breath work, meditation, and yoga in helping her regulate her nervous system and move from states of fight-or-flight into deep, reparative calm. Through these techniques, she learned to process trauma and manage her emotional landscape, emphasizing the importance of vagal tone exercises and self-care over reliance on medication. This integrative approach allowed her to not only endure difficulty, but to cultivate resilience and peace despite ongoing grief. Creativity became an important vessel for remembrance and transformation for Vickie. She explains how visualization—a field of butterflies representing her daughter, for instance—provided comfort and spiritual connection. Writing letters to her children, painting mandalas, and incorporating these works into her memoir, “The Mother of All Memoirs,” became rituals of closure and homage. Vickie shares how these artistic expressions and written reflections helped honor her children’s memories while supporting her own journey toward healing. In closing, Vickie offers wisdom to others facing the pain of loss: healing is a continuous process, not a destination. She encourages listeners to honor their emotions, trust their intuition, and remain open to the ongoing lessons embedded in life’s challenges. Her story emphasizes that by embracing our grief and giving it meaning, we can transform suffering into purpose, legacy, and an authentic sense of gratitude for the connections that endure beyond loss. Vickie Menendez shares her journey through losing her son, father, and a stillborn child, and how these profound losses transformed her understanding of life and death. She channels her grief into advocacy work, creating a foundation to address the health and addiction issues that affected her children. Holistic practices such as breath work, meditation, and yoga play a central role in Vickie Menendez’s approach to healing from trauma. Through creative expressions like letter writing and visualization, Vicki honors her children’s memories and finds spiritual connection. Vickie Menendez’s story emphasizes that embracing and processing emotions can turn suffering into purpose and ongoing healing.
Today on the Dr. K Show, Dr. Karlfeldt is joined by a very special guest, Vickie Menendez. Vickie’s appearance on the podcast centers on her deeply personal journey through profound loss and healing. Having lost both her son and father within a year—coupled with an earlier loss of a stillborn child—Vickie recounts the cascading waves of grief that shaped her perception of life and death. She discusses how her understanding of soul contracts and the nature of loss evolved, helping her reframe what initially felt like insurmountable tragedy into a catalyst for personal growth and compassion for others.
As Vickie navigated her new reality, she found meaning and purpose in her hardships. Her children’s experiences became the foundation for her mission, pushing her to speak out, support, and inspire others dealing with addiction and health struggles. Vickie believes her own voice carries the lessons her children imparted in life, and she channels their energy into meaningful advocacy work, including the creation of a foundation to address seizures, asthma, and addiction—conditions central to her family’s story.
A key element of Vickie’s healing has been her embrace of holistic modalities. She describes the vital role of breath work, meditation, and yoga in helping her regulate her nervous system and move from states of fight-or-flight into deep, reparative calm. Through these techniques, she learned to process trauma and manage her emotional landscape, emphasizing the importance of vagal tone exercises and self-care over reliance on medication. This integrative approach allowed her to not only endure difficulty, but to cultivate resilience and peace despite ongoing grief.
Creativity became an important vessel for remembrance and transformation for Vickie. She explains how visualization—a field of butterflies representing her daughter, for instance—provided comfort and spiritual connection. Writing letters to her children, painting mandalas, and incorporating these works into her memoir, “The Mother of All Memoirs,” became rituals of closure and homage. Vickie shares how these artistic expressions and written reflections helped honor her children’s memories while supporting her own journey toward healing.
In closing, Vickie offers wisdom to others facing the pain of loss: healing is a continuous process, not a destination. She encourages listeners to honor their emotions, trust their intuition, and remain open to the ongoing lessons embedded in life’s challenges. Her story emphasizes that by embracing our grief and giving it meaning, we can transform suffering into purpose, legacy, and an authentic sense of gratitude for the connections that endure beyond loss.