Hi, I'm Heather, a CTA Certified Coach and former Conflict Resolution Educator. I have walked the path of loss many times. I was raped when I was 16 years old, two weeks after my sister died of a lifelong terminal illness. I’ve experienced the untimely death of loved ones, the death by suicide of friends, and the murder of a colleague. I intellectualized my losses, and worked hard to create a happy adult life and move on from my losses earlier in life, and that worked for many years. Yet, once my marriage crumbled and ended in divorce, I came to know one of the most painful losses of all: parental alienation of my beloved children. In the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic economic shutdown, I lost my job and my home, leading me to relocate to another area of the country, and take a leap of faith and start life over again in an entirely new community.

I know what it's like to feel lost, and to have a loss of faith and hope. And, I’ve also walked the journey required to find inner strength, have faith in my higher power, and do the work to heal from those experiences.

Each time losses occurred, I used the only tools I had ever been taught...to be strong, grieve alone, and use my dogged determination to try to "fix" my problems and "move on." Outwardly, I'd put on an enthusiastic and "happy" face, as that is truly how I wanted, and was expected, to feel. I worked hard, achieved high degrees, and career aspirations, yet nothing healed my broken heart. Looking back, I realize I was numb. I was “being strong” for others, yet I felt completely broken inside. "Intellectualizing" my grief had given me tremendous understanding in my head, but very little emotional recovery in my heart. The impact of all this unresolved grief was that it accumulated and limited my capacity for real happiness and peace in my personal life.

In 2020, when I lost my home and my job in the pandemic economic shutdown, it was a heart-breaking, soul-shifting moment. I felt like I had lost my identity, my hopes, and my dreams. As the entire world shut down for a time, there were no therapists available – even online. That despair and grief brought back the sadness, resentment, and pain of all my previous losses I thought I had dealt with. That was a dark and difficult time across the world. To get through it, many became numb, siloed, and isolated, including me. The losses became so normalized and protracted, many didn't even call them by their name: grief.

In 2022, I was grateful and thankful to finally access a trauma-informed therapist. Also, I reconnected with a dear, old friend and shared my sorrow. Miraculously, she had completed the Grief Recovery Method. It honestly felt like divine intervention. She lovingly shared her story of delving deep into her own losses, and the healing that had come to her in doing so. I immediately signed up to complete the next available workshop! Through many months of open, honest, candid work - along with therapy - the Grief Recovery Method®️ gave me the tools I needed to address the incomplete losses in my life and do the work necessary to heal my heart.

Since that time, I have become trained as an Grief Recovery Method Specialist, and now provide one-on-one and group grief recovery method support in the Akron/Canton/Cleveland, OH area and worldwide via Zoom. As a Grief Recovery Method Specialist, Coach, and veteran Conflict Resolution Educator, I know how to hold space for people that are experiencing their own losses, and listen so that they feel heard and supported while they complete the Grief Recovery Method.

I believe we are meant to live life emotionally free and open to possibility. We all need someone who is willing and able to hold this space for us. It would be an honor to guide and support you on your journey. While grief and loss is inevitable, and life-altering, it doesn’t have to be interminable and permanently debilitating. “Recovery from grief means claiming your circumstances instead of your circumstances claiming you and your happiness… Most importantly, recovery means acquiring the skills we should have been taught in childhood.” (The Grief Recovery Handbook)

I’ve completed my own Grief Recovery Method work on many important people in my life. I’ve learned to complete relationships of importance, reconnect with family, and find my peace. The Grief Recovery Method has helped me heal tremendous wounds, look at and articulate my Hopes, Dreams and Expectations, and access and give voice to my undelivered communications related to them. It has helped me learn to see people the way they are, without expectations, and without judgement, which is a gift in and of itself. Letting go of all those "shoulds" in my head has helped me become better able to live in the moment in relationships as they are, now. This work is an ongoing gift to myself. Completing undelivered communications has been liberating, healing and life-affirming. As a person who was drowning in toxic positivity in my earlier life, and serving as a people pleaser my entire life, unable to freely express and speak my truth, the Grief Recovery Method has given me back my voice – and helped me strip away the people pleasing, placating, insecurities of yesterday. What’s left is real me; authentic me. The Grief Recovery Method has given me the tools to honestly and freely speak from my heart, and reconnect parts of myself that had been dormant, so that I can be "me," and be more present and in the moment.

My educational background is diverse with a B.A. in Political Science, a Master of Arts in International Peace & Conflict Resolution, a Master’s Certification in Organizational Development, and a PhD (ABD) in Education from American University in Washington, DC. I am also a certified CTA Life Coach and a trained mediator. It is my lifelong passion to facilitate personal growth and healing in individuals and groups.

I look forward to working with you to obtain the tools of the Grief Recovery Method, to lead to completion of the pain caused by losses in your life. This is an incredibly powerful program that can lead to incredibly powerful results. Like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. It’s my sincere hope that you will decide to join me in an upcoming one-to-one or group program. “Recovery is possible! Recovery means feeling better. Recovery means claiming your circumstances instead of your circumstances claiming you and your happiness. Recovery is finding new meaning for living, without the fear of being hurt again.” (The Grief Recovery Handbook).

Please contact me soon! It would be my honor to guide you through the Grief Recovery Method.
I am currently located in Stow, OH, a suburb of the metro Akron/Canton/Cleveland, OH area.
* I offer one-on-one grief support online, and in person
* I offer group grief support online and in person
* I offer Helping Children with Loss
* I offer the Pet Loss Support Group