Ashley Lemieux: Rewire Your Mindset, Heal From Grief and Trauma, and Start Again | Mental Health | YAPClassic
September 25, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readAshley Lemieux was in her mid-20s, building her first company and newly married, when she and her husband became permanent guardians of two children overnight. For four years, they were a family. Then, during the final steps of a contested adoption, a two-year court battle ended with the children being taken away. She was on the other side of the country for work when it happened and never got to say goodbye. “The lack of purpose that I felt in my life no longer being a physical mother is something that made it really hard for me to get out of bed in the morning,” she says. She and her husband tried to run from the grief—first moving to Nashville, then traveling through Europe for two months with no plans. But the grief followed them. Eventually, standing in a square in Milan, she threw up her arms and yelled, “I am here.” That moment became the foundation of her recovery and the title of her book.
Why Acknowledgment Comes Before Healing
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Opening: Ashley's Story of Loss** - Ashley recounts the sudden loss of two children after a contested adoption, describing the profound grief and identity crisis that followed.
- 2 (04:29) **Can You Run From Grief?** - Ashley explains how moving to a new city and traveling to Europe were attempts to escape her pain, but the grief always returned.
- 3 (07:50) **The Birth of Clarity Mapping** - Ashley reveals the origin of her five-question daily practice, designed to rebuild purpose and direction after a devastating loss.
- 4 (09:02) **A Second Trauma: Miscarriage** - After deciding to grow their family, Ashley experiences a life-threatening sepsis infection and the loss of her baby boy, Jace.
- 5 (13:56) **The First Step to Healing: Acknowledgment** - Ashley gives direct advice for anyone feeling stuck in pain, emphasizing that you cannot fix grief, but you must stop avoiding it.
- 6 (15:56) **Why Sharing Your Story Heals** - Ashley explains how telling her story helped her heal and gives others permission to do the same.
- 7 (17:42) **From Entrepreneur to Grief Expert** - Ashley describes her pivot from a successful jewelry business to getting a master's degree in grief and bereavement.
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Show Notes
After facing unimaginable loss, Ashley Lemieux was forced to discover how to keep going and embark on a journey of self healing when her world fell apart. She was raising two children toward adoption when a contested court battle took them from her overnight, and years later a dangerous pregnancy complication took her newborn son. Ashely did what many entrepreneurs do: she buried the pain in constant work. Then when running from grief no longer worked, she learned to build her life with intention. In this episode, Ashley shares how to work through grief, reframe negative thoughts, and use her Clarity Mapping framework to make peace the filter for every decision in life and business.
In this episode, Hala and Ashley will discuss:
(00:00) Introduction
(00:46) Losing the Children She Raised
(05:24) Using Clarity Mapping for Self-Healing
(07:29) Surviving Sepsis and Pregnancy Loss
(12:24) Healing Grief Through Sharing and Community
(16:06) Shutting Down a Successful Business and Starting Over
(26:02) “I Am Here”: A Mindfulness Mantra
(28:41) How Entrepreneurs Cope With Grief Differently
(37:50) Reframing Negative Thoughts and Emotions
(47:38) The Difference Between Grief and Trauma
(50:42) Turning Fear and Failure Into a Growth Mindset
(55:29) The Five Daily Questions of Clarity Mapping
(59:55) Why Mental Health and Inner Peace Matter
Ashley Lemieux is a grief expert, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and founder of The Shine Project. She holds a Master of Science in Mental Health and Wellness with an emphasis in Grief and Bereavement, and is the creator of Clarity Mapping, a framework designed to help people regain clarity and move forward with intention. She also hosts the Healing Her podcast, which focuses on grief, self-discovery, and emotional healing.
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