Therapists I recommend
Therapist & author
Claire Bidwell Smith
Conscious Grieving · Anxiety, the Missing Stage of Grief · The Rules of Inheritance
A grief therapist who lost both her parents to cancer in her teens and twenties. Her work on the anxiety that lives inside grief is something I come back to again and again. A colleague I deeply respect.
clairebidwellsmith.com →
Grief activist & podcaster
Lisa Keefauver
Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch · Reimagining Grief podcast
A licensed social worker and widowed mother who is reimagining how our culture treats grief. Her book, her TEDx talk, and her podcast are doing the work of changing the conversation. Recently on the Today Show.
lisakeefauver.com →
Therapist & author
Gina Moffa
Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go
A licensed grief therapist whose modern guide to navigating loss meets people exactly where they are. She writes for the griever who has been told to move on, and refuses to.
ginamoffa.com →
Licensed therapist
Alexis Kimball
Seattle, WA · online sessions
A trauma-informed LMHC offering online counseling and coaching, with a queer- and neurodivergent-affirming approach to life transitions, relationships, and mood. A referral I trust for clients looking for that fit.
Find her on Psychology Today →
Clinical social worker & therapist
Kami Marsh
Draper, UT · certified clinical trauma professional
A Utah-based therapist with over a decade of experience supporting people through trauma and life transitions. A solid referral for clients based in Utah.
Find her on Psychology Today →
Equine-assisted therapist
Rose Mary Riggs
Shakti Ranch, Malibu
Founder of Shakti Ranch and a certified Equine Guided Educator and yoga therapist, working with trauma survivors, veterans, and first responders on her Malibu ranch. Where I hold my own EMDR Intensives.
shaktiranch.com →
Psychologist & author
Laurel Parnell
Attachment-Focused EMDR · Healing Relational Trauma
The psychologist who developed Attachment-Focused EMDR, blending resource tapping and a reparative therapeutic relationship into standard EMDR. Her approach shapes how I run my own EMDR Intensives.
drlaurelparnell.com →
Licensed clinical social worker & therapist
Jessica Starr
Portland, OR · Mother Hunger® Group Facilitator
An IFS and EMDR-trained therapist in Portland who also facilitates Mother Hunger® groups, working with trauma, disordered eating, and grief through a somatic, body-centered lens. On my referral list.
jessicastarrtherapy.com →
Therapist & author
Kelly McDaniel
Mother Hunger® · Ready to Heal
Therapist and author of Mother Hunger®, the book and framework that gave a name to so much of what I work with. The term Mother Hunger® is hers, and her thinking is foundational to mine. I teach this material as a trained Mother Hunger® Facilitator.
kellymcdanieltherapy.com →
Somatic practitioner
Emma
@emazingg
A somatic practitioner I follow and recommend for body-based healing work.
@emazingg →A therapist I especially recommend
Colleagues in grief
Grief educator & coach
Dr. Julie Shaw
Hello I’m Grieving
Founder of Hello I’m Grieving, a certified grief educator and coach building community for grievers through events, a podcast, and her own lived experience. A colleague doing good work in this space.
helloimgrieving.com →
Grief therapist
Lara Plutte
Lara Plutte Therapy & Mindfulness · Silver Lake, Los Angeles
A grief therapist and certified mindfulness teacher in Los Angeles, blending talk therapy with meditation, movement, and mindfulness. A colleague I’m glad to point people toward.
@larapluttetherapy →Child loss colleagues
There’s a dedicated child loss resources page → combining these people with organizations and books, all in one place to share.
Writer & advocate
Susie Shaw
Bereavement Mom · William’s Be Yourself Challenge
Writes as Bereavement Mom after the death of her son William, and founded William’s Be Yourself Challenge to support other families grieving a child. Her honesty about parenting with one foot in two worlds is a resource I point people to.
@bereavementmom →
Therapist & author
Dr. Laura Berman
Crying Out Loud: A Path Through Grief Into a Life Reimagined
A therapist and TV host who lost her teenage son Sammy to an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2021. She has grieved publicly and turned her advocacy toward protecting other families from the same loss.
@drlauraberman →Authors who have influenced me
Writer
Cheryl Strayed
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 for a long time.
cherylstrayed.com →
Writer
Pam Houston
Cowboys Are My Weakness · Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
A writer who spent her book royalties on a Colorado ranch and has been writing her way through land, love, and loss ever since. Her voice on resilience and the wild has stayed with me.
pamhouston.net →
Therapist & author
Claire Bidwell Smith
Conscious Grieving · Anxiety, the Missing Stage of Grief · The Rules of Inheritance
A grief therapist who lost both her parents to cancer in her teens and twenties. Her work on the anxiety that lives inside grief is something I come back to again and again. A colleague I deeply respect.
clairebidwellsmith.com →
Author & grief educator
Hope Edelman
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. Her research keeps shaping how I understand long-arc grief.
hopeedelman.com →
Writer
Lidia Yuknavitch
The Chronology of Water · The Book of Joan
Her memoir tells the truth about a body that has survived loss, addiction, and shame without flinching or asking permission. It is one of the bravest books I know.
lidiayuknavitch.net →
Writer & teacher
Samantha Dunn
Not By Accident · Faith in Carlos Gomez
An author and memoir teacher whose writing on grief, risk, and putting a life back together has stayed with me. She teaches memoir at Chapman University and directs the Esalen Writers Camp.
samanthadunnwriter.com →
Novelist
Rene Denfeld
The Enchanted · The Child Finder · The Butterfly Girl
A novelist who is also a licensed death penalty investigator, working death row exoneration cases for almost twenty years. Her fiction carries that same unflinching, clear-eyed compassion for people the world has given up on.
renedenfeld.com →
Neuroscientist & author
Mary-Frances O’Connor
The Grieving Brain
A psychologist and neuroscientist who directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress Lab at the University of Arizona. Her research on how grief lives in the brain gave me a whole new language for explaining loss to clients.
maryfrancesoconnor.org →People who inspire me
Researcher & author
Brené Brown
Daring Greatly · Atlas of the Heart · Rising Strong
A researcher whose work on vulnerability, shame, and courage has changed how a generation thinks about connection and worthiness. Her language is in the bones of how I work with women.
brenebrown.com →
Writer & teacher
Scott Stabile
Big Love · love-as-practice writing
Scott lost both his parents to murder-suicide when he was a child. He writes about love and grief and forgiveness with a clarity I have not found elsewhere. His daily presence on social is its own quiet medicine.
scottstabile.com →Non-profits I recommend
Survivor-founded nonprofit
Survivors Empowered
Founded by Sandy & Lonnie Phillips
Founded by Sandy and Lonnie Phillips after their daughter Jessi was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting. Their Rapid Response teams show up for the newly bereaved, in person, anywhere in the U.S. I contributed to the survivor toolkit they co-created with GIFFORDS.
survivorsempowered.org →
Research database
GVPedia
2,000+ academic studies on gun violence
A nonpartisan academic database of studies on gun violence, with white papers and fact sheets behind the advocacy. Useful for the days your grief wants somewhere to go besides grief itself.
gvpedia.org →
Advocacy & resources
GIFFORDS
Founded by Gabrielle Giffords
Founded by Gabrielle Giffords after she survived being shot in 2011. Beyond the policy work, they publish resources for survivors and support a national community. I was honored to contribute to their survivor toolkit after losing my own father to gun violence in 1988.
giffords.org →
Nonprofit for grieving children
Empower
Founded by Cara Belvin · formerly empowerHER
Founded by Cara Belvin, who lost her own mother at age nine, Empower supports, connects, and mentors girls and young adults who have lost a parent, at no cost to families. Close to the heart of my own Mother Hunger® work.
weareempower.org →
Nonprofit for grieving children
The Dougy Center
Led by Brennan Wood · Grief Out Loud podcast
The original peer support model for grieving children and families, now the basis for 500+ programs worldwide. Led by executive director Brennan Wood, who also hosts the Grief Out Loud podcast.
@thedougycenter →A note: these are people I admire and recommend, not formal partnerships or endorsements, and not a substitute for the care that's tailored to you. If you're looking for support, reach out and we'll find the right fit together.
Photo credits: portraits of Brené Brown, Cheryl Strayed, and Hope Edelman via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses. Other photos used with permission from each author’s public press materials.