Dahria Williams-Fernandes is a wife, a mother, a motivational speaker, a Funeral Director & President of Floyd A. Williams Funeral Home, and a former Professor of Mortuary Science, Mortuary Law, and Thanatology. She is a former Chairman of the Massachusetts State Board of Professional Licensure for Funeral Directors & Embalmers.
Funeral Service has opened up a world of passion for her. The desire to aid others in a time of need and promote love, faith, purpose, motivation, empowerment, and legacy. She is a firm believer that you must meet people in the middle to create a shift in thinking. She continues to find ways to allow the insight and wisdom gained from observing Life from this perspective to pour back into the community as a Certified Life Coach, Art Therapist, End-of-Life Doula, Grief Educator, and Grief Recovery Specialist.
She has launched the nonprofit organization:
PAUSE ~ A Movement for A Moment.
Pause initiatives strive to bring awareness to the stages & span of life and the significance of the lens we view it through. She has observed and explored the possibilities within a legacy and what sets it in stone, yet also the need to reframe it, allowing the fact that everyone has something to give the world.
The goal is to become a voice that reveals the “wisdom in the wounds” and the tools to see you through while being the heart’s ears of grievers through the spectrum and span of Life. Her charge is to expand the scope of normal practice within funeral service and end-of-life planning. As a first responder to grief and the conduit that assists in fortifying hearts and minds during difficult and transitional times, she finds it necessary to create a universal commitment and focus around grief, mental health, and wellness initiatives for Grievers of all types.
“It is not about dying. It is about finding the path to Living For Ever by daily choosing to Walk in the Light of our Legacy.”
Aside from the personal benefits that she has experienced, The Grief Recovery Method has become an intricate puzzle piece in the PAUSE initiative. Given that it is a research-based method and one that she has personally experienced and adopted, she found that The Grief Recovery Method was a well-rounded, efficient resource and sound understanding to add to the Funeral Home's' services and to implement within PAUSE's tool kit and coaching practice.
Dahria would love to walk with you through this method as she holds group sessions and has limited space for a one-on-one which she hopes will open space for you to join a community that is working toward the same goal of healing and wellness.