“At the core of this grief is our longing to belong.”
— Francis Weller
Grief touches something deep within us. It carries our love, our longing, our memories, and the parts of ourselves forever changed by what we have lost.
The Grieving Soul is a place to honor what has been lost, tend to what remains, and make space for the person we are becoming.
Grief changes the landscape of our lives.
Some losses divide life into a before and an after.
What once felt familiar may suddenly feel different. Our relationships, our roles, our sense of ourselves, even the future we imagined can shift beneath us.
Grief can hold sadness and anger, longing and love, guilt and relief, fear and even moments of joy. Sometimes several of these things exist at once.
The Grieving Soul exists to make room for all of it.
Grief Coaching
A place for the life that follows loss.
Grief coaching offers a place to talk honestly about what has changed and what it means to live in the world after loss.
This is not about moving on, finding closure, or following a prescribed timeline. It is about making room for what has happened while discovering how to carry both your grief and your love into the life that continues around you.
Our conversations begin wherever you are. We may talk about identity, relationships, changing roles, difficult emotions, meaning, remembrance, or the unexpected ways grief continues to show up in everyday life.
Death Café
What becomes possible when we speak openly about death?
Death Café offers something both simple and uncommon: a place to gather and talk openly about death and dying.
There is no agenda, no required belief system, and no expectation that anyone arrive with answers.
These conversations create space for curiosity, reflection, story, mortality, grief, laughter, uncertainty, and the subjects our culture often teaches us to avoid.
I facilitate Death Café gatherings in Petaluma and believe deeply in creating places where conversations about death can happen naturally.
Speaking & Workshops
Changing the way we speak about grief, death and dying.
The Grieving Soul is also a place for education, community conversation, workshops, presentations, and thoughtful collaboration.
My hope is to contribute to a culture where death is not treated as something we cannot speak about and grief is not something people are expected to quietly overcome.
These conversations can take place in community organizations, workplaces, libraries, schools, and other spaces interested in creating a more honest relationship with grief, loss, death, and mortality.
About Heather
This work began with grief, but it grew from listening.
My own relationship with grief began early in life and has continued to shape the way I understand loss, love, mortality, and the need for places where people can speak honestly about difficult things.
Over time, that personal experience grew into community work, Death Café facilitation, continued education, and a deeper commitment to conversations surrounding grief, death, and dying.
The Grieving Soul grew from that journey.
My Story →I do not believe grief needs to be fixed.
I believe it needs somewhere to belong.
Perhaps you do not need an answer. Perhaps you need a place to begin.
Whether you are grieving, curious about Death Café, interested in a workshop, or simply drawn to these conversations, you are welcome here.