Meeting Grief & Moving Through It
Where sorrow is welcome, love endures, and life opens again.
There Is No Right Way to Grieve
Loss changes us.
Sometimes it arrives as death—the loss of a beloved child, a spouse, a parent, a sibling, or a dear friend. Sometimes it comes through divorce, estrangement, betrayal, illness, or the unraveling of a life we believed we would have.
Whatever its form, profound loss can leave us standing in a world we no longer recognize, wondering how life can possibly continue when something—or someone—so essential is gone.
I know this landscape intimately.
Over the course of my life, I have lost eleven men who held significant places in my heart. But nothing prepared me for the death of my beloved son, Coltan Santana. His passing shattered the world as I knew it and opened a journey through grief more profound than anything I could have imagined.
What I have discovered is that grief does not ask us to stop loving, to forget, or to become who we were before.
It asks to be met.
And when grief is given the space, tenderness, and presence it deserves, something within us can begin to move—not away from love, but more deeply into life.
You do not have to hurry your grief. You do not have to make it beautiful. And you do not have to walk through it alone.
When the World Doesn’t Know How to Hold Your Grief
The loneliness of loss—and the healing power of being witnessed.
One of the most painful dimensions of grief is how profoundly isolating it can become.
Friends and family may love us deeply yet have little capacity to accompany us into our sorrow. They may encourage us to stay positive, be strong, find closure, or move on—often because they cannot bear to see us hurting.
But grief does not respond well to being hurried or managed.
We may begin concealing our tears, swallowing our longing, or protecting others from the depth of our experience. Even within the same family, people can become islands of private sorrow, unable to find one another across the different ways they grieve.
And some losses are scarcely acknowledged at all. The end of a relationship, an estrangement, a miscarriage, the loss of health, or the collapse of a cherished dream may leave us grieving without the recognition or support we need.
There is a profound difference between being encouraged to get over something and being accompanied as we move through it.
In my work, there is room for all of it: the heartbreak, the anger, the bewilderment, the longing, the love—and even the moments of unexpected beauty that sometimes arise alongside sorrow.
Nothing needs to be pushed away to make room for something else.
A Different Way of Being With Grief
Making Room for Sorrow, Love & Life
Grief is not simply something we think about. It lives in our bodies, our memories, our relationships, and the quiet moments when the absence of someone or something beloved becomes almost unbearable.
We may try to reason our way through it, distract ourselves from it, or hold ourselves together for the sake of others. Yet so much of what needs our attention exists beneath the reach of words.
My approach invites us to meet grief through the whole of our being.
Through compassionate inquiry, somatic awareness, and deeply attuned presence, I help you explore what you are carrying—not to force a release or manufacture a breakthrough, but to create the conditions in which your own experience can unfold.
There may be tears that have waited years to be shed. Anger that has never been given permission to speak. Love that has nowhere obvious to go. Or a longing to feel alive again that seems somehow disloyal to what has been lost.
All of it belongs.
I have come to understand that grief and love need not be opposing forces. Nor must we choose between honoring what has been lost and opening ourselves to what life may yet offer.
We can learn to carry our love forward without leaving ourselves behind.
This is not about returning to the person you were before your loss. It is about discovering how to inhabit your life more fully, with tenderness for everything that has brought you here.
A Journey as Individual as Your Grief
A Journey as Individual as Your Grief
No two people grieve in quite the same way. Even when we have experienced a similar loss, the landscape of our sorrow is shaped by the particular love, history, circumstances, and relationships that have brought us here.
That is why I do not offer a prescribed formula for grief.
Our work together begins with you—where you are, what you are experiencing, and what you most need in this moment.
Drawing upon years of experience in coaching, somatic awareness, and transformational inquiry, I create a confidential, compassionate space where you can explore the many dimensions of your loss.
Together, we may attend to the emotions that have been difficult to express, the ways grief has settled into your body, the beliefs and expectations that complicate your mourning, or the questions of identity and meaning that arise when life changes irrevocably.
We may also explore how to navigate relationships, honor your boundaries, rediscover moments of pleasure and nourishment, and make room for the possibilities of life without diminishing the significance of what you have lost.
There is no timetable to follow, no particular emotional state to achieve, and no expectation that you should be somewhere other than where you are.
My commitment is to meet you with presence, compassion, and respect for the wisdom of your own unfolding.
The losses I have lived through have taught me that grief cannot be reduced to a set of stages or a prescribed path toward recovery. The death of my beloved son brought me into depths I could never have imagined, yet it also deepened my understanding of love, presence, and the extraordinary capacity of the human heart.
I do not presume that your journey will resemble mine. What I offer is the compassionate companionship of someone who knows profound loss from the inside and understands that the path through it is uniquely your own.
You Don’t Have to Walk This Path Alone
If you are navigating a profound loss and longing for a place where you can bring the fullness of your experience, I would be honored to meet you.
Whether your grief is recent or has accompanied you for many years, whether it arises from death or another life-altering loss, you are welcome here.
Our first conversation is a complimentary, confidential Chemistry Call—a gentle opportunity for us to meet, for you to share whatever feels comfortable about your loss, and for us to explore whether working together would be supportive.
There is no intake form to complete beforehand and no obligation to continue.
You are welcome exactly as you are.
In the Words of Those I’ve Accompanied
After the loss of my daughter, I was despondent. I had no support in my life and was so heavy with sorrow I could barely breathe. All I wanted to do was die. A friend of mine who is a therapist referred me to Laura, who was grieving the loss of her husband and son at the time (she didn’t tell me this, but my therapist-friend did), yet said she could work with me. I have never felt so supported and held. I can’t tell you what it’s meant to move through grief with Laura’s compassionate heart at my side, helping me feel safe enough to express my deepest pain, and teaching me tools to regulate my nervous system, so I could grow my capacity to feel what needed to be felt. There was definitely a little magic here. Although I will always miss and love my beautiful girl, I feel like I’ve come back to myself in a way that wasn’t possible before.
– Alyson N., Florida
When I lost my husband of 40 years to cancer, I couldn’t cope. Friends didn’t know how to deal with my sudden outbursts of anger and sadness and so slowly, they went their separate ways. I was left alone with this gaping hole inside my heart. I found Laura through a referral from my doctor. She supported me as I learned how to feel what I had been holding back. This is not easy work. However, it is life changing. Oh, and some of the ways she invited me to honor my husband were so beautiful I am moved to tears remembering them. I have my life back in a different way that feels good. I am excited about life again. I learned more about love and grief than I can put into words.
Mari J, WA