Justine Brooks Froelker is a Licensed Professional Counselor, who has a private practice in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the author of the book and blog, Ever Upward. She is an advocate for breaking the shamed silence surrounding infertility, loss, and recovery. Justine writes for St. Louis Health and Wellness and Huffington Post and makes regular TV appearances on the midday show, Great Day St. Louis. She went through costly infertility treatments and now lives “child-free,” but not by choice.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
- How Justine reacts to the ever-present question, “Well, why don’t you just adopt?”
- How to apply the grieving process to loss that isn’t commonly acknowledged or understood.
- How Justine recommends navigating through a journey like hers.
- How relationships can become “casualties” of the journey and what true empathy is.
- Why people don’t know how to respond to infertility that doesn’t end with a happy, bouncing baby.
- Two “Motherhood Myths” that are prevalent in today’s society, and how to respond to them.
- How unexpected “mothering roles” can bring fulfillment to the nurturing desire, even to the point of raising butterflies-----yes, butterflies!
- How a “child-free” life can bring a deep sense of meaning and purpose so that you can choose your legacy and impact the lives of others.
- What Justine refers to as the “complicated gray” of life, where nothing is all-black or all-white.
- How Justine advises other women who live their lives without children of their own. “YOU are the only one who knows what is right for your family.”
- Find Justine on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and at her blog, www.everupward.org.
