The Adapted Life, Finding Next
I’m Julie Hasselberger. For 26 years, I was the full-time caregiver for my beloved son Daniel, whose life was marked by profound disability and extraordinary beauty. This podcast began as a way to support other parents navigating the complex, often isolating world of special needs caregiving. But life changed — heartbreakingly and irrevocably — when my son passed away.
Now, The Adapted Life, Finding Next is a space for truth-telling, tenderness, and transformation. It’s about what comes after the role that once defined you is gone. It’s about grief, relational trauma, resilience, and the raw, ongoing search for next — for purpose, healing, and connection.
If you’re facing a season of reckoning, rebuilding, or rediscovery, I invite you to walk with me. You are not alone. This is the adapted life… and together, we’ll find what comes next.
Episodes
41 episodes
Calling your energy back, a guided meditation
In this guided meditation, we just take a few minutes to focus on where our energy has been sent today, and peacefully call some it back to us. Thank you for listening!
Where does your energy go?
EPISODE DESCRIPTIONHave you ever reached the end of the day and wondered why you feel so exhausted… even when you didn’t “do” that much? In this episode, we explore a deeper understanding of energy—not just physical, but ...
The Power of a Spark
Episode DescriptionIn this opening episode of the new season of The Adapted Life: Finding Next, I reflect on the quiet but powerful ways that connection can begin to illuminate even the darkest seasons of life.Through perso...
New Season Introduction
This is Julie Hasselberger. Introducing Season 5 (not 60 of my podcast The adapted life, Finding Next This season, is about tending to the energy of being somewhere in the middle of healing from devastating loss an...
Coming Home to Present, as a tool
Hello, In this episode I speak tenderly about how meditation has transformed my journey with grief and pain. This is my first ever guided meditation, so I am sure it won't be perfect. I have layered grief, and dee...
Love in transition, healing from brokenness
The Adapted Life Podcast, by Julie HasselbergerSeason 4 Episode 35 "Love in transition." Adapting in our brokenness. Love is not static, it bends, breaks and mends across time. The loss of child shatt...
The Double Loss
In this episode I want to take a gentle walk through discussing what happens when your caregiving world ends. I offer a moment of calm meditation, as well as a journal prompt to think on at the end. which is, " What tru...
Reflecting on "going inward" in healing trauma
Hi. My name is Julie Hasselberger. I am going through some incredible grief and trauma healing. My son passed away at 26 years old, and losing him left a hole in my heart. Shortly after that, I experience some terrible relatio...
Finding Next
The Adapted Life, Finding Next Podcast Season 4Episode 32I have been wandering around in a place called grief and trauma. As I write this, I can share that I most definitely am not the same person I w...
Grief leaves me strange and stuck. Grief is not linear either.
254 days ago, from the day I recorded this talk, my beautiful son Daniel passed away at the age of 26. The journey I am on now, is really bizarre. There is no linear progression as far as I am concerned. Having been my...
Even Though I Grieve ...
Even though I Grieve Even though I grieveI can smile at your photoEven though I cry I can feel grateful Even though I am brokenI can limp along todayEven though I miss you
Looking for the light
The Adapted Life Podcast Season 3 Episode 29 4 months of grieving. This is a checking in, of sorts. Before I begin, I would like to reach out and let you know that if you are also grieving, and th...
Grief. We lost our son.
The Adapted Life Podcast Season 3 Episode 28A new season. A dark tunnel. A lonely place. A monsoon of tears. A red bird. A sun rise. A blanket. A box of tissue. A pile of ...
Living in alignment, core values, and being a caregiver
Episode 27 As caregiver for my son, who is 26 years old, I have had quite a journey. There have been times, when I felt completely lost and down, out of sync with who I am. Not even knowing what my core values are anym...
WHAT WE CARRY FORWARD
In this episode, I had been pondering the work I've been doing on self-love and releasing attachments. I asked myself, what does this mean to caregivers who carry with them a lifetime of changes that traumatically altered the course of th...
Your health matters too, caregivers
Hello my adapting friends. Welcome to Episode 25 of The Adapted Life Podcast. In this episode I wanted to talk about that word, health. And its sister "self-care". Taking care of our own health care needs is extremely ...
HOW DARE YOU DO SOMETHING ELSE! (but really, its ok)
In this episode, I wanted to talk about finding space outside of caregiving to do something that your intuition is calling you to do. As we know, carrying the weight of someone else's life and well being on our shoulders is a very heavy...
Inside his brain. What the MRI reveals and coping with it.
In this episode, I wanted to talk about my son's recent MRI, and what it really means to the entire big picture. And I guess, what it doesn't. Thank you for being here, at the adapted life podcast. As with with my life...
Tilted. A reaction to expanded family caregiving.
In this episode I discuss how I experience this "tilt" reaction to having been overwhelmed with a sudden and traumatic need to care for aging family members, on top of my responsibility as a caregiver Mom to my medically complex and disabled ad...
Adapting into 2023
Episode 21Season 2In this episode, I am excited to be able to continue this journey with my listeners. Sharing an overview of what happened in 2022, and looking into the new year, with curiosity and intention to continue follo...
DEFYING THE ODDS, 25 YEARS OF ADAPTING (Happy Birthday Daniel)
Hello everyone, This is my 20 th episode. Recorded just around the time of my son's 25th birthday (November 22nd) I was so grateful and musing the concept of my past 25 years as a musical montage. I talk about a wonderful e...
HOME CARE FOR MY SON IS A PIPE DREAM !
In this episode, I wanted to share with my listeners, what I have gone through over the past 15 plus years trying to take care of my severely disabled son, using his state benefits and programs. The puzzle I face, like so many oth...
DON'T TELL ME TO SELF-CARE!
SELF-CARE. ONE OF THE DREADED PLATITUDES PEOPLE THROW AT CAREGIVERS LIKE MYSELF, IS "YOU KNOW, YOU HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TO BE A BETTER CAREGIVER FOR ....." I don't share that opinion, because I see self-care as an exten...
Communicate and Ask for Help even when its hard
In this episode I'm discussing the importance of the tool of communicating to others what your needs are, and asking for help. This is easy to say, but for so many of us, very hard to do. Even with the difficult challenge of taking ...
Gratitude Practice, Julie's toolkit for Adapted life
In this episode, I discuss my second "tool" in my tool kit for those dealing with extreme adversity and caregiving responsibilities. It is gratitude. I explain that being grateful is an empowering way to stay centered and min...