What If Your Greatest Adversity Has a Purpose?

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Ahead of All Parting by Barry Michels
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Psychotherapist and bestselling co-author of The Tools, Barry Michels, joins the podcast to discuss his extraordinary new memoir, Ahead of All Parting. This is a conversation for anyone searching for meaning in life’s most difficult moments and seeking to discover how transformation is possible in the face of extreme adversity. Barry has been diagnosed with a terminal brain disease, Lewy body dementia. Despite the inevitable pain and grief that come with a devastating health diagnosis, he now sees it as the path he was meant to walk—a path that has opened him up in ways he never thought possible, revealing the power of vulnerability, love, prayer and the written word. Drew Barrymore, one of Barry’s longtime clients, also joins the conversation to share the life-changing impact he’s had on her life.

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:14 - Welcome Barry Michels, author of Ahead of All Parting
00:06:35 - Barry speaks on Lewy Body dementia
00:09:20 - Grief after hearing a diagnosis
00:12:18 - When did Barry notice something was off
00:14:14 - Getting a diagnosis
00:16:15 - Adversity has a purpose
00:19:45 - Not hiding after a diagnosis
00:20:25 - Welcome Drew Barrymore
00:23:00 - Drew Barrymore on going through challenges
00:25:50 - Drew Barrymore on watching Barry navigate his illness
00:27:20 - How the diagnosis changed Barry as a therapist
00:28:30 - Appreciating life
00:29:50 - Feeling guilt with a diagnosis
00:38:22: Welcome Alex, who was diagnosed with kidney failure
00:43:22 - Religion during a diagnosis
00:49:20 - Barry Michels on writing
00:54:00 - Barry Michels on seeing his mortality

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