You’re not meant to grieve alone.
Grief is part of life.
Your grief is precious. Your loss deserves witnessing and acknowledgment. Every sorrow matters—the death of a loved one, loss of a relationship or pet, ancestral wounds, worry for our planet, or life’s many disappointments. Our culture tells us to “hurry up and grieve,” but our bodies and souls know better. Let me gently guide you to befriend your grief and make space for joy again.
What is grief tending?
When you watch over a pot of simmering soup, you tend it. When you cultivate a garden, you tend the plants. When you tend to someone who’s sick, you sit by their side. Grief tending is gentle, non-interventional, and led by the arising needs and experience of the grieving person.
Grief tending is creating a place and time to feel safe to grieve in your own way and in your own time with an experienced guide. When your grief is well-tended, you feel heard, able to ride grief’s waves, and eventually open to the positive transformation that sorrow invites.
Some people who work with grieving people call themselves “grief coaches.” But the role of a coach is to bring out the best in people. Frankly, we are not at our best when we are grieving—and we don’t need to be! I like that the word “tend” comes from the idea of stretching, as in reaching out one’s hand.
Create a new story of loss.
Grief often leaves us feeling numb, powerless, and lost. When nothing makes sense and everything we know feels broken, we are called to slow down, listen, and make small, beautiful things.
I encourage bite-size habits of quiet, stillness, and creating to support your grieving. While we never “move on” from some losses, creativity opens a portal to eventually making meaning from our loss, a touchpoint for healing and re-entering life and love.