Kintsugi Heroes
Naomi Yano · 49 min
A psychotherapist who lost her newborn daughter and her marriage within days of each other reveals how validation, self-compassion, and learning to trust her own emotions became the unlikely path back to herself.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Naomi Yano is a psychotherapist in Toronto who lost her newborn daughter and her marriage within days of each other. In 2010, while her second child fought for survival in neonatal intensive care at 24 weeks gestation, Naomi discovered her husband was having an affair. After months of uncertainty at her daughter's bedside, doctors told her the baby had severe brain injury and would need life support indefinitely. Naomi and her husband decided to bring their daughter home and let nature take its course. For four days, Naomi watched her daughter stop breathing and start again, all while learning the affair was still happening. One week after her daughter died, Naomi asked her husband to choose: stay and rebuild the marriage, or leave. He left. Within days, she had lost both her child and her marriage.
What followed was rock bottom. Naomi couldn't eat, couldn't function, couldn't think beyond survival. But small moments began to shift things. A friend's simple validation that her pain made sense gave her back her appetite. Meditation taught her that suffering was optional, separate from pain itself. Over years of self-help groups, therapy, and relentless self-reflection, Naomi stopped accepting her husband's version of events and started trusting what she felt. She realised that many people have difficult marriages, but not all of them choose to have affairs. His choice was his own. Anger became a turning point, telling her that what happened was not okay. She learned that her emotions, even the dark ones, were not problems to fix but information to explore. Now Naomi uses her experience to help others heal from trauma and difficult emotions, especially those who feel alone in their pain. Her message is simple: I see you. You're not alone.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗