Episodes

  • During Caregiving, What's Luck Got to Do With It?

    During Caregiving, What's Luck Got to Do With It?
    Jul 6 2026
    We're told family caregivers should feel grateful — lucky, even — to still have their caree with them. But what happens when the person is here and also, somehow, gone? This week, Denise sits with the uncomfortable gap between what we're supposed to feel and what caregiving actually feels like.

    There's a curse in that gap. There might be a spell that breaks it though it's not the one you'd expect.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Calculate your caregiving value.
    • We have two tools that connect you to more comfort:
      • Find a podcast episode that eases the pain from a tough emotion
      • Read a message that soothes what aches in your heart and soul
    • Image by Sabine18 from Pixabay
    About Denise

    Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and training. Through her work, Denise helps clients find hope, possibilities and a path forward. Denise began helping individuals who care for a family member in 1990 and launched a business to help them in 1995. She created one of the first online caregiving communities in 1996 which she managed until its sale in 2020.

    Denise now develops and delivers training programs for the workplace and for individuals who want to coach family caregivers. More than 400 individuals from eight different countries have enrolled in her training programs offered through her company, The Caregiving Years Training Academy. Her training programs have been approved to provide Continuing Education Units to health care professionals, including nurses, and human resource professionals.

    Denise also hosts an online community, CaringOurWay.com, that supports individuals during and after their personal caregiving experience. Community members enjoy free workshops and special events like the Caregiving Listener Project and the 36-Hour Christmas Chat. Denise is the author of several books that provide insights, comfort and hope to those who care, including The Caregiving Guide, Your Go-To Reference and Companion During All Stages of Your Caregiving Experience, and After Caregiving Ends, A Guide to Beginning Again. Her free resource, A Workbook for Your Workplace Wellness, helps individuals who care, grieve and work.

    Denise began helping her parents in 2004 after her father’s bladder cancer diagnosis. Her mom, who had Parkinson’s disease, died in August 2022, one year to the date after Denise’s brother died. Her father died in July 2023.

    Next Avenue named Denise a 2017 Influencer in Aging, one of “50 advocates, researchers, thought leaders, innovators, writers and experts who continue to push beyond traditional boundaries and change our understanding of what it means to grow older.” Her insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, US News & World Report, USA Today, SmartMoney.com, Time magazine and Chicago Tribune.



    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
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    4 mins
  • During Caregiving, Your Thoughts About the Mess Others Make

    During Caregiving, Your Thoughts About the Mess Others Make
    May 18 2026
    Sometimes, before you can let something go, you have to let yourself feel it first.

    This week's Caregiving Comfort sits with the revenge fantasies that family caregivers rarely admit to — the ones about the doctor who made the diagnosis so hard, the sibling who promised to show up and didn't, the health care professional who left your caree unable to rest. The ones that feel a little too satisfying to visualize.

    You don't have to apologize for any of it.

    And when you're ready, there's a pivot waiting — back to your life, your energy, and the quiet knowledge that some people have already earned exactly what's coming to them.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Calculate your caregiving value.
    • We have two tools that connect you to more comfort:
      • Find a podcast episode that eases the pain from a tough emotion
      • Read a message that soothes what aches in your heart and soul
    • Image by Basil Smith from Pixabay


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • During Caregiving, The Reality of Your Reality

    During Caregiving, The Reality of Your Reality
    May 11 2026
    You share a little of what your day looks like. And someone tells you that you're exaggerating.It's one of the more isolating moments in caregiving — having the weight of your experience questioned by someone who isn't carrying it. In this episode, Denise speaks directly to that frustration, and to what it means to hold your ground when others doubt your reality.

    Someday, they'll know. Until then, you do.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Calculate your caregiving value.
    • We have two tools that connect you to more comfort:
      • Find a podcast episode that eases the pain from a tough emotion
      • Read a message that soothes what aches in your heart and soul
    • Image by Alexa from Pixabay
    • Enjoy the podcast, below.


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
  • During Caregiving, You Build

    During Caregiving, You Build
    May 4 2026
    You build every day — pushing, patching, hammering solutions together. But where's the building?

    In this episode, Denise explores the structure family caregivers actually create: precise, fragile, and holding everything together. What happens when you start building in what you need, too?

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • We have two tools that connect you to more comfort:
      • Find a podcast episode that eases the pain from a tough emotion
      • Read a message that soothes what aches in your heart and soul
    • Image by Pexels from Pixabay
    #caregiving


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • During Caregiving, How Do I Fit My Life?

    During Caregiving, How Do I Fit My Life?
    Apr 27 2026
    Rearranging your home is something you can see as you go. Rearranging your life during caregiving is different — it requires trust before you can see the results. In this episode, Denise explores what it really means to add help, shift schedules, and remake the shape of your days when you can't yet know if the new arrangement will work. If you've hesitated to rearrange because the uncertainty feels too great, this episode is for you.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • We have two tools that connect you to more comfort:
      • Find a podcast episode that eases the pain from a tough emotion
      • Read a message that soothes what aches in your heart and soul
    • Image by Tyli Jura from Pixabay


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • During Caregiving, You Can Wonder: Is This All There Is?

    During Caregiving, You Can Wonder: Is This All There Is?
    Apr 20 2026
    Some days, caregiving feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain — moment by moment, with no end in sight. In this episode, Denise sits with the question that can rise up on those days: Is this all there is?
    This short reflection explores what happens when a hard day becomes, in our minds, a hard life — and how to find your way back to the fuller picture of who you are and what your life holds.

    Because this part of your life is hard. And your life is more than this part.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Image by Couleur from Pixabay


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • During Caregiving, How Do You Cope With So Many Endings?

    During Caregiving, How Do You Cope With So Many Endings?
    Apr 13 2026
    Too much ends during caregiving — the life you knew, the services you counted on, the friendships that couldn't hold the weight of it. In this episode, Denise explores what happens when you give yourself an intentional beginning in the middle of all that loss. Because with every ending, a new beginning arrives. And your spring is coming.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Check out our Caregiving Author program. Enrollment ends May 3, 2026.
    • Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • During Caregiving, They Defer While You Do It

    During Caregiving, They Defer While You Do It
    Apr 6 2026
    There's a word your family uses when they want to sound supportive.

    Defer.

    "We defer to you."

    "Whatever you think is best."

    "We know you've got it covered."

    That's not support. That's a load — handed to you, wrapped in a compliment.

    You can defer, too.This week on Caregiving Comforts, we're talking about how to hand something back and what to have ready if they don't show up.

    Resources
    • Purchase Denise's five-book Take Comfort series so you always have comfort with you.
    • Keep our support with you; download our Caring Our Way app from the App Store and Google Play store
    • Image by Arletys Graphic Design from Pixabay


    Caregiving Comforts offers exactly what you need: 2-3 minutes of genuine understanding, comfort, and hope. Every Monday, Denise M. Brown shares reflections that speak directly to your caregiving reality—the exhaustion, the overwhelm, the moments when you wonder if life has canceled you.
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins