The Magic in the Tragic- Rewriting the Script of Grief and Discovering Happiness in Our Darkest Days

​

John Tsilimparis, MFT, author and psychotherapist in conversation with Thomas Strouse, MD, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and the inaugural holder of the Maddie Katz Chair in Palliative Care Research and Education.

​

You’re invited to discover a new way of thinking about grief and loss.

​

In The Magic in the Tragic, esteemed psychotherapist and bereavement counselor, John Tsilimparis, MFT, invites you to explore how grief can coexist with beauty, tenderness, and deep human connection. Rather than something to endure or overcome, grief becomes a powerful gateway to meaning, resilience, and even joy.

​

What if healing didn’t require waiting for pain to end—but learning how to live fully within it? What if your darkest moments held an unexpected kind of magic?

​

Drawing on three decades of clinical experience, personal insight, scientific research, philosophy, and the healing power of music, art, and nature, John offers a compassionate and empowering approach to navigating loss and uncertainty. Together, we’ll explore how to face fear head-on, honor difficult emotions without sugarcoating them, and uncover the unseen beauty within our most vulnerable experiences.

Join us for an inspiring conversation about resilience, healing, and the possibility of new life—even in the midst of tragedy.

 

BIOS
John Tsilimparis, MFT, is a distinguished psychotherapist, mental health consultant, writer, podcast host, and former adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and UCLA. He is the author of Retrain Your Anxious Brain. He was a featured mental health expert on A&E’s Obsessed and has appeared on John Mulaney’s Everybody’s in LA, Larry King Live, The View, Fox 11 News, KTLA-News, KABC-TV, KCBS-TV, and KCAL-TV.

​

John is a former staff therapist in the department of psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and in the department of addiction medicine at Kaiser Permanente. He’s a member of the Advisory Board Committee for the popular and prestigious mental health platform Wondermind, and he is an active supporter for mental health advocacy and volunteers with This Is My Brave, a charity dedicated to ending mental illness stigma.

In his private practice, John focuses on treating individuals suffering from depression, grief and loss, severe anxiety disorders like OCD, phobias, panic disorder, and trauma. John is a lover of the arts and the curative allure that creativity inspires. He is also a musician and a published composer. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

​

Tom Strouse, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and the inaugural holder of the Maddie Katz Chair in Palliative Care Research and Education. Dr. Strouse served as the Chief Medical Officer of the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA from 2007 through 2021, and as Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry from 2007-2024. From 1994 to 2007, Dr. Strouse was the Director of the Supportive Oncology and Pain Management Services at the Outpatient Cancer Center at Cedars-Sinai.

​

Dr. Strouse presently spends most of his clinical time in the UCLA Neuromodulation Clinical and Research Service, focused on noninvasive neuromodulation of pain

He has spent his career working with medically ill adults coping with psychiatric and physical aspects of catastrophic illness. Along with his current efforts to promote palliative care clinical research within the UCLA Health System, Dr. Strouse is a faculty member in the combined GLA/UCLA Palliative Medicine Fellowship.

​

Dr. Strouse is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a Fellow of the Academy of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry, and an American Psychiatric Association Distinguished Life Fellow. He is board certified in general psychiatry and hospice/palliative medicine.

​

From 2007-2018 Dr. Strouse served on American Board of Internal Medicine Test Committee responsible for writing the certifying exam for all North American physician candidates for the ABMS subspecialty of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He chaired the committee from 2014-2018 and continues to assist ABIM with exam development.   

Dr. Strouse has published many peer reviewed papers and book chapters and sits on the editorial boards of a number of important journals. In 2017 he became an Associate Editor for the Journal of Palliative Medicine. He lectures throughout the country on topics related to pain, palliative care, psycho-oncology, and psychiatric aspects of medical illness. He was educated at Pomona College and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.