Voices in grief
This is not an exhaustive list. It is a personal one. These are the people whose work has shaped mine — whose books I press into hands, whose podcasts I send people to at 2 a.m., whose presence at conferences has steadied me.
If you find your way to one of them, tell them I sent you. We all know each other in this work.
Author & grief educator
Motherless Daughters · Motherless Mothers · The Aftergrief
The woman who named what so many of us had been carrying. Her first book, written in her twenties after losing her own mother, became a movement. Decades later her research keeps shaping how we understand long-arc grief.
hopeedelman.com →Therapist & author
Conscious Grieving · Anxiety, the Missing Stage of Grief
A grief therapist who lost both her parents young. Her work names the anxiety that hides inside grief and gives it somewhere to go. A colleague I deeply respect.
clairebidwellsmith.com →Writer & advice columnist
Wild · Tiny Beautiful Things · Dear Sugar
After her mother died, Cheryl walked the Pacific Crest Trail and then wrote one of the great American grief memoirs. Her advice writing has been a steadying voice in this work for a long time.
cherylstrayed.com →Grief activist & podcaster
Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch · Reimagining Grief podcast
A licensed social worker and widowed mother who is reimagining how our culture treats grief. Her podcast, book, and TEDx talk are doing the work of changing the conversation. Recently on the Today Show.
lisakeefauver.com →Death doula & educator
Briefly Perfectly Human · Going with Grace
A death doula and the founder of Going with Grace. Her work on how to live and how to die is reshaping what end-of-life support looks like in this country. Watch her TED talk.
goingwithgrace.com →Grief coach & author
Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose
Colin lost both his children in a single car crash in 2019. His book is one of the most honest pieces of grief writing I have read in years — for anyone who is doing the long work of finding the words.
colincampbellcoaching.com →Rabbi & author
The Beauty of What Remains · For You When I’m Gone
A senior rabbi who has sat with thousands of dying people. His books make space for grief without prescribing it — he writes from his own father’s death and the funerals he has performed for forty years.
steveleder.com →Therapist & writer
It’s OK That You’re Not OK · Refuge in Grief
After her partner drowned, Megan built the original anti-platitude grief space. Her Writing Your Grief courses have walked thousands of grievers through the hardest parts.
refugeingrief.com →Author & grief expert
Finding Meaning · On Grief and Grieving (with Kübler-Ross)
The author who added a sixth stage to the original five — meaning. After losing his own son, David's work shifted again. He runs Tender Hearts, the largest grief community in the world.
grief.com →Researcher & therapist
Bearing the Unbearable · MISS Foundation
A grief researcher and bereaved mother whose work on traumatic loss is the foundation of how I think about child loss specifically. She founded the MISS Foundation after her own daughter's death.
joannecacciatore.com →Therapist & bereaved mother · LA
Grief offering · longtime relationship therapist
A longtime therapist and author whose son Sammy died of a fentanyl-laced pill at fifteen. Her grief offering speaks from the place where the worst possible thing has already happened.
drlauraberman.com →Therapist & coach · adoptee specialist
Adoptee therapy · EMDR
A licensed counselor and transracial adoptee whose practice centers adoptee mental health. EMDR-trained. For the grief that begins at the very beginning.
alexiskimball.com →