Helping you heal grief & sadness
GRIEF RELIEF COACH
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You feel overwhelmed by grief
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You feel stuck and cannot move forward
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There is no one you can talk to who understands what you are experiencing
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You feel a sense of hopelessness
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You worry that you will never recover
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You feel like you no longer know who you are
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You feel isolated and alone in your grief
My approach to healing is based on my experience of healing my own grief. I will guide you through the stages of grief until you are ready to move forward however long it takes. I use various healing practices connecting you to source healing that is specifically designed to heal grief and loss. When you are ready, I utilize a coach approach to partner with you in moving forward to embrace your new life with renewed energy, stamina, and vitality. This is a powerful healing journey that will change your life!
What is my approach to healing?
Does any of this describe you?
"I attended weekly sessions of grief counseling with Barb. In the beginning I was holding anger and fear of facing loss. Barb helped through weekly meditation and homework to help me feel what I was feeling and accept it. I had to learn to let go of what angered me in my grieving. Barb helped me to understand where my pain and loss was coming from. I had no idea that I was following patterns in my life and that I was ‘stuck’. I learned about transitioning and how to stop old patterns. I found Barb to be an excellent grief coach. It’s difficult to face our feelings but am so appreciative now for these sessions."
J.G, Vancouver Island
Meet Barbara...
MA, RN, CEC, BA, Master Reiki healer, Therapist,
Grief Coach, Certified soul communicator
I have had a long career in counselling mental health clients as a nurse. I also worked as an executive coach, teacher and Reiki Master. Although all of these designations have been helpful they were not enough to heal my pain.
Specifically, I had to learn to do practices everyday to connect to the source of all healing and it was these practices that healed me over a period of months. You can learn these practices. They are open to all and easy to learn.
I have since worked with many people with life threatening illnesses both as an individual practitioner and as a volunteer with the Paul Sugar Palliative Support Centre. I facilitate a support group serving clients with terminal cancer. I help individuals and groups learn meditation and mindfulness practices. I support loved ones through the painful
process of death and dying and I work with individuals going through a major loss.
I utilize all of my skills as a nurse, counsellor, coach, Reiki practitioner and Certified Soul Communicator to provide clients with the best possible healing experience. My belief is that we all have the power to heal ourselves, to heal each other, and to move
forward in our lives.
My mission is to serve humanity. I have been gifted with the power of healing to serve those with severe physical and emotional illnesses.
I am here to serve you.
My Top 5 Tools to Manage Grief
5 Myths about Grief
Common misconceptions and beliefs
1. "There is a correct way to get through grief"
Grief doesn't follow a formula or a set of stages.
The truth is, grief is very personal. Everyone's grief is unique to them and you cannot compare the depth of your grief to someone else's.
The worst grief is the one you are experiencing right now and your pathway to healing will be unique to you.
2. "It is important to get over it and get on with it."
The truth is most of us do not get over our grief, its always with us... but we can move forward, what is the difference?
If you have lost a loved one, Moving on implies that you have left the person behind in order to resume your life, and for most of us that is just not acceptable.
We want to continue to honour our loved ones, to remember them, we don't ever want them to be forgotten.
What actually happens is that We learn to build a life around our grief and gradually the life we build around our grief becomes larger than our grief.
It happens slowly, by degrees, it is not necessarily smooth or consistent but over time there is a gradual shift and your new life starts to seem possible.
3. "Is surviving the best I can do?"
Being a survivor suggests being a victim. When you think of yourself in this way I think you are suffering much more than you need to. It is more difficult to move forward when you feel like a victim. A victim by definition is living in pain.
As you work your way through the grieving process you learn to walk alongside your grief until you are no longer engulfed by it.
If you allow yourself to complete the grieving process, space is created to allow your new self to emerge when you are ready.
4. "Grieving just takes time"
The truth is that time itself does not heal you. Sitting in your pain does not heal you. Sitting in pain reinforces the pain.
Healing needs to be intentional, it takes steps, it takes a plan and a road map and, yes, it takes time but time is not enough.
Keeping busy does not heal you either. We live in a culture that honours busyness. If you are busier than you used to be before your loss, you might be finding ways to distract yourself rather than feeling your loss. And you have to feel in order to heal.
5. "People want to be left alone to grieve"
A common misbelief is that people who are grieving want to be alone and not talk about their loss. Not so in my experience.
Grievers can feel isolated and abandoned by friends and family.
People worry that they will upset the grieving person if they talk about their loss but in my experience, grievers want to talk about their loss especially with people who knew their loved one.
And the flip side of that is some people want to be supportive, but they feel uncomfortable reaching out. It is very important to stay connected. Reach out if you know someone is grieving. If you have lost someone, keep talking to friends and family. Share stories and memories. It can be very healing.
When a grieving person feels that someone hears and understands their pain it reduces their suffering and helps them feel connected.
We live in a culture that denies death. We have difficulty acknowledging it, talking about it, and supporting people who have lost loved ones. We are often uncomfortable around people who are grieving.
As a grieving person, you may feel you are left on our own to manage your grief as best you can and try to get on with your life as fast as possible. You may consider that you are doing well by simply surviving.
We should all expect better than simply surviving. You can learn to understand the grieving process, move through it more gracefully and give yourself space to honour your grief. You can be supported in your grief for as long as it takes in ways that nourish you and keep hope alive.