FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Kayla Stoecklein and Christian Wilson joined the Trevor Talks podcast for a raw, vulnerable conversation about what it’s like to survive a love one’s death by suicide.
Losing Loved Ones
Both outspoken mental health advocates have experienced the loss of family members. Kayla lost her husband Andrew Stoecklein, pastor of Inland Hills Church, in 2018. Christian lost his brother Jarrid Wilson, pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship and cofounder of nonprofit Anthem of Hope, in 2019. Though some of the details of their stories are different, the two survivors share the uniquely gentle wisdom and empathy that comes from grieving the impossible.
“There is so much value in understanding yourself and how your body reacts to trauma and really understanding that if you need to take a break, it’s OK to take a break,” Christian Wilson offers. “If you need to stop talking about it for a while, it’s OK to stop talking about it for a while. If you want to talk about it a lot more, that’s totally fine too. Each person is going to be different, just like their journey through grief and healing is going to be different.”
The conversation is compassionately steered by podcast host, Trevor Tyson, who has himself experienced the loss of close friends to suicide, and who considered Jarrid Wilson to be a personal mentor. Through the course of the conversation, the three wounded healers talk about the experience of grief, how to take care of yourself when you’re talking about heavy topics and where the church still struggles with stigma around mental health. As it coincides with the recent release of Kayla’s second book, Rebuilding Beautiful, the episode also provides a preview of what readers can expect from these heartfelt pages.
Rebuilding Beautiful
“I always want to tell my story authentically,” Kayla says of her journey into mental health advocacy, speaking, and writing. “You never want to get callous to it. You never want to tell your story and for it to not sink in and settle in.”
Part of that tenderness that Kayla has cultivated comes from a deep desire to continue advocating for mental health, the same way her husband did. She says, “It was important for me for Andrew’s life to be defined not just by how he died, but how he lived.”
We Want to Help
Kayla, Christian and Trevor also provide a list of resources for those currently struggling with mental health — a list including sites like HeartSupport, Death2Life, Beneath the Skin, To Write Love On Her Arms and OnSite.
Get Rebuilding Beautiful now through Thomas Nelson. You can find the full episode of Trevor Talks: How to :Rebuild Beautiful” After Losing Loved Ones with Kayla Stoecklein & Christian Wilson on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.