grief in the workplace

When loss comes to work, your people bring it with them.

Someone on your team is grieving right now. A parent, a partner, a pregnancy, a diagnosis that started the goodbye early. Most workplaces have no language for it, so it goes quiet and shows up as exhaustion, absence, and good people leaving. I help companies meet grief with something steadier than an awkward silence.

Bring Angela to your team

Why this matters

Grief doesn’t stay home

Every workplace meets loss eventually. A death in someone’s family, a miscarriage, a terminal diagnosis, a divorce, the slow goodbye of a parent with dementia. When there is no language for it, managers freeze, colleagues go quiet, and the grieving person learns to carry it alone at their desk. That silence is costly, in wellbeing, in trust, and in the people who eventually decide to leave. It does not have to be that way.

A grief-literate workplace doesn’t need the perfect words. It needs to stop being afraid of the wrong ones.

Grief in the Workplace

Ways to work together

Three ways to bring me in

Every engagement is shaped to your team. Start with a single talk, build grief-literate managers over a short series, or keep me close as your standing grief and loss consultant.

Talk / Keynote

A talk that names it out loud

One session · whole company or a single team · in person or virtual

A warm, plainspoken 45 to 60 minute session that gives your people language for loss, and gives managers something to do besides look away. A fit for a wellbeing day, a lunch and learn, an awareness moment, or a team that has just lost someone.

  • Grief as trauma, and why it shows up as exhaustion, vigilance, or numbness
  • How to support a grieving colleague without making it worse
  • The losses that rarely get acknowledged: caregiving, miscarriage, estrangement, the slow goodbye
  • Live questions, held with care

Format: a single session, tailored to your team

Ask about a talk
Workshop series

Grief-literate managers and teams

A short series · managers, HR, or a whole team · interactive

A series that turns good intentions into real skill, for the people who have to lead when someone on their team is grieving, and for teams who want to be the kind of place that holds its people well.

  • What to say, and what to stop saying, when an employee is bereaved
  • Bereavement practices that are actually humane, beyond the policy minimum
  • Ambiguous and anticipatory grief: the employee caregiving for a dying parent, the one nobody knows is grieving
  • Returning to work after a loss, and the weeks and months that follow

Format: 2 to 4 sessions, built with you

Ask about a series
Ongoing advisory

Your grief and loss consultant

Ongoing · for HR, People, and leadership

A standing relationship for organizations that want grief handled well before they need it. I stay close to your People team as a resource, and I am there when something hard actually happens.

  • Guidance on bereavement policy and manager support
  • Coaching for a manager navigating a specific situation
  • On-call support when a death or crisis reaches your team
  • A knowledgeable, steady person your People team can pick up the phone and call

Format: retainer or per engagement, scoped to you

Start a conversation

Every engagement is priced once I understand your team and what you need, so you only pay for what fits. Tell me what is going on and I will follow up personally.

Who you’d be working with

A licensed therapist who does this gently

I’m Angela Schellenberg, a licensed trauma and grief therapist and host of the Grief, Trauma & Your Mama podcast. I have spent my career sitting with people in the hardest losses of their lives, and I bring that same steadiness into rooms full of coworkers. My work has been featured by National Geographic and CBS Sunday Morning.

Clinically grounded. Real frameworks from trauma and grief work, translated into plain language your team can use on Monday.

Safe, never heavy-handed. No forced sharing, no spotlight on anyone. People take exactly what they need and nothing they don’t.

Built for your context. Shaped to your team, your industry, and whatever prompted the call.

In person or virtual. On site for teams in the Los Angeles area and beyond, or live online for distributed teams.

Questions, plainly answered

Before you reach out

What does it cost?

Every engagement is custom, so pricing is shared after a short call, once I understand your team, the format, and the timing. You will get a clear proposal with no pressure.

Is this the same as our EAP?

No. An EAP is a referral line for individuals. This is proactive: I help your managers and teams build real capacity to meet grief, and I am a known person you can actually call.

Do you travel, or is it virtual?

Both. I work on site with teams in the Los Angeles area and beyond, and I lead the same sessions live online for distributed teams.

Something just happened on our team. Can you help now?

Yes. If a death or crisis has just reached your people, say so in your note and I will make room to respond quickly.

Is this therapy?

No. These are educational and supportive sessions, not treatment. When someone needs individual care, I help point them toward it.

How do we start?

Send the note below. I read these personally and will follow up to talk through what your team needs, usually within a couple of business days.

Bring Angela to your team

Tell me a little about your team and what’s prompting this. The more context you share, the more tailored my response. I read every note personally.

Your details are kept in confidence and never sold.

Thank you, this is on its way.

Your note is on its way to Angela, and a confirmation is heading to your inbox. She will be in touch personally to talk through what your team needs.

Also for teams

Prefer to get out of the office?

If your team needs more than a session, I also design private corporate retreats in Malibu.