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
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 →
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 →
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 →The framework that shaped my Mother Hunger® work
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.