Can I Help You?
Everyone lives with loss while joy often seems in short supply, elusive. Have you ever felt that way?
I believe joy is always with us. Even on our darkest days, feeling utterly lost or anxious, it's there, maybe in the shadows, but joy is there.
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I didn't always believe that joy is ever-present (it seems too touchy-feely to be true, doesn't it?). Then, after a series of deaths and two years in deep grief, I stumbled into creating what I call Tiny-Come-Back-to-Your-Senses Rituals—mindful, sensory moments that allowed joy to emerge and live alongside the grief. With practice, the joy grew and the grief retreated.
Eventually I designed a life-support system for living with loss and started sharing it with others, including through my book, Grieving Us: A Field Guide for Living with Loss Without Losing Yourself.
Inspiring you to cultivate joy & well-being in your life every day is the goal of my writing, mentoring & coaching programs, and community-building.
Services & Programs
My focus in Mentoring & Coaching groups and individuals is to help each person find their way into their most meaningful and vibrant life.
If we work together, I'm there as a resource & guide who helps you address challenges, achieve your intentions for growing, and connect more deeply with the people you care about & the world around you.
You have the answers you need to create the life you want (yes, even if you don't think you do). My role is helping you unlock and implement those answers.
Areas of Expertise
Navigating grief & cultivating well-being after loss; post-traumatic growth; addressing the special needs of those grieving a beloved animal companion; implementing mindfulness & sensory healing; writing—poetry, personal storytelling & journaling.
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I serve people virtually, in the US & around the world.
(Currently only able to assist English speakers.)
Working Together
Small-Group Mentoring & Coaching
Sometimes the best way to repair your life, learn, and grow is by being a part of a small, supportive group of kindred-spirits dealing with similar life challenges.
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A few times per year I offer a program called, Inviting Joy Into Grief: A 12-Week Workshop for Transcending Grief & Reimagining Life After Loss. It goes beyond grief support to help you design your own life-support system for living with loss and create the next chapter of your one-and-only life.
An action-orient combination of live Zoom workshops, individual practices, online learning & resources, and personal connections, Inviting Joy Into Grief helps you find new ways to hold on to the one you love, move into the future with a sense of purpose, and experience joy again.
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One-to-One Mentoring & Coaching
Feel you would benefit from one-to-one mentoring & coaching to help you navigate grief and find your way back into your heartbroken-and-still-beautiful life? Or perhaps you're dealing with other challenges to personal growth?
I reserve a few, limited spots to support 1:1 client needs via Zoom or phone. Not therapy, this Mentoring & Coaching Process focuses on empowering you to shape your own healing path, set intentions for your life, and support you in creating a life that's meaningful to you and those you love.
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To learn whether we may be a good fit, schedule a free, no-obligation 45-Minute Exploration Conversation (by phone or Zoom depending on your location & preference):
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"I do not trust anyone, but I trusted you. You saved my life and helped me navigate through my pain and gave me tools to move forward."
Anne K.
What People Say
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"For the very first time, I truly feel heard and understood. No one has understood me or what I've been going through these last few years. I have felt so very alone. What a gift, not to feel so alone anymore."
Mari B.
"I am much more aware of who I am and what I can do with the rest of my life! I have hope that I didn’t have before."
Malinda T.
Frequently Asked Question
How is Mentoring & Coaching different from Therapy & Psychotherapy?
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Therapy & Psychotherapy typically focus on helping people understand, address, and cope with disabling life challenges and mental health conditions, often filtering present or chronic struggles through the lens of past or childhood traumas and conditions, then offering therapeutic or treatment-oriented approaches.
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Mentoring & Coaching typically focus on helping people move forward in their lives by envisioning their future, setting intentions and goals for the person they want to become, addressing mindsets & beliefs, and providing strategies, structure, support, and accountability for overcoming current life challenges and succeeding with personal & professional growth.
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If you are struggling with mental health concerns, dealing with extreme or disabling grief, or have thoughts of harming yourself or others, please seek the services of a physician and/or psychotherapist now.
About Me
I'm an Award-Winning Poet & Author and a Mentor & Coach.
I help people struggling with grief reimagine and recreate their lives after loss, so they can hold on to their loved one in a new way, move into the future with a sense of purpose, and experience joy again.
My dance with loss started early. As a toddler, I survived a house fire that my sisters, sleeping in the same room, did not. Over time I weathered a series of deaths that come with living on the planet awhile. Losing my mother, soon after the suicide of a friend, hit me the hardest. I spent two years in "loss limbo" until I figured out a system for living with my losses. Now I help others apply that system to transcend grief and cultivate joy.
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Along the way, I've spent 25+ years as a philanthropy leader and charitable & end-of-life planning advisor. I've held leadership and professional roles with foundations, universities, and an international humanitarian organization.
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Most meaningfully, I've served incredibly diverse people looking for meaning after the loss of a spouse, partner, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, friend, or beloved animal to illness, accident, suicide, or traumatic death.
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My work has taken me from Alaskan rainforests to the Andean highlands of Ecuador to the villages of rural Sierra Leone, connecting across cultures. I can say: the realities of living with loss and the desire to live with joy, curiosity, meaning, and well-being are common threads woven into the lives of all human beings.
When I'm not writing, mentoring, or speaking, I thrive along Northern California's redwood coast where I satisfy my 'thing for birds' by hiking the forests & beaches, sea kayaking the lagoons & bays, and mindfully enjoying the subtle turning of the seasons.