
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.
The Adapted Life, Finding Next
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 care of a loved one, it can be hard to realize that you are not a superhero. Communicating takes on a very different meaning sometimes, for caregivers like me and others, because we become so accustomed to just trying to handle all of the burdens and stress.
I want to stress, that keeping everything inside, and living in fear of what others will think, is damaging. When we can seek help from beyond our fear, and develop an abundance mindset, things shift and stress is sometimes lifted. I have realized over the past few years that even though I have had a very difficult situation to manage, life is still abundant and wonderful.
Communicating and Asking for help is a way of opening up your heart to receiving and you just never know what could happen.
Thank you for joining me on this very vulnerable journey. I wasn't feeling well when I recorded this, but I pushed into it regardless. Because life is raw and real. I'm here for it.
Much love and gratitude to you all.
And please remember to check out "Daniel's Special Art Shop" on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg