Episode #35
I Tell Myself the Story Where I Win with Joél Simone
In this episode of the Bodyway Intuition Podcast, meet Joél Simone, affectionately known as The Grave Woman. She is a sacred grief care practitioner, licensed funeral director and embalmer, and an award-winning educator and speaker who brings more than a decade of expertise to end-of-life, death, and grief care. She is the founder of The Multicultural Death & Grief Care Academy, where she helps professionals, organizations, and governmental agencies create culturally sensitive and inclusive practices that honor diverse communities. Joél's work has been featured by the Los Angeles Times , The New York Times , Good Housekeeping , HBO, and the Library of Congress. Although Joél's work centers on death, this conversation is ultimately about being alive. We explore how witnessing death transformed the way she experiences life and why mortality has become one of her greatest teachers. Together, we discuss the relationship between the body and spirit after death, what it feels like to be in the presence of someone who has died, and why she compares the body to someone's empty house: the person has moved out, yet their essence can still be felt. We also explore how information is perceived through the Clair senses, channeling, and its connection to inner and outer awareness, and what it means to protect ourselves while remaining open to spiritual communication. We also reflect on restorative art and the practice of restoring the appearance of the body after death, culturally responsive end-of-life care and conversations, ancestry, compassion, curiosity, and the ways becoming more aware of death can deepen our relationship with life, ourselves, and one another.
