When the Coach Becomes the Student: Why Professional Coaching Requires Continuous Learning
Five years ago, I founded The Confident Grief Coach School with a vision of creating a compassionate, evidence-informed, heart-centered approach to grief coaching. Like any meaningful body of work, our program has evolved over time — not because the foundation was flawed, but because growth requires humility, listening, and the willingness to keep learning. One […]
Mother’s Day: A National Holiday or a Daily Reminder?
Do you know the history of Mother’s Day? I love to research the history of holidays and wondered how Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and all those “… Days” came into existence. Apparently in the United States, Anna Jarvis organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration in 1908 to honor her late mother, Ann Reeves […]
Grieving the Living: The Silent Loss of Family Estrangement
We don’t talk enough about the grief of losing someone who is still alive. No funeral.No closure.No clear path forward. And yet—millions of people are carrying this exact kind of loss every day. Family estrangement is far more common than most people realize. Research from Cornell University suggests that nearly 27% of Americans are estranged […]
There Is No Timeline for Grief: Releasing the Pressure to “Move On”
By: Cami Thelander, Certified Grief Coach, Community Engagement Leader, Confident Grief Coach School One of the most common and unspoken pressures people experience after loss is the expectation to “move on.” It may not always be said directly, but it is often felt—in the quiet pauses when others stop asking how you’re doing, in the […]
Grieving Without Heaven: When Loss Happens in a Secular World
As a certified Celebrant for funerals and celebrations of life, I am often asked to officiate a service because a family or their loved one was not affiliated with a formal religion or church. Most often, the family still holds some belief that they will see their loved one again—that there is a heaven where […]
The Grieving Brain: You’re Not Crazy – You Are Grieving
By: Cami Thelander, Certified Grief Coach If you’ve lost someone you love, you know how disorienting grief can be. Have you ever felt crazy for thinking your person might walk through the door, even when you know they’re not physically here? Or you went to call them and then felt crushed when you remembered that […]
Caregiver Grief, Invisible Loss and Why Self-Care Is Not Optional
Caregiving is one of the most common and least acknowledged roles in the United States today. More than 60 million Americans are currently providing unpaid care to a loved one who is aging, ill, disabled or living with cognitive or medical challenges. That’s nearly one in four adults. Yet despite how widespread caregiving is, many […]
The Medicine of a Grief Retreat: Sacred Space, Shared Humanity, and Healing in Community
There’s something powerful that happens when you step away from your everyday life and into a space that says, you don’t have to be okay here. Grief retreats aren’t about fixing anything. They’re about creating room… room to breathe, to soften and to let your guard down. They offer a pause from the world that […]
Grief, the Nervous System and Why Small Daily Practices Matter
Grief is not just emotional. It lives in the nervous system. After a deep loss, many people notice they can’t focus, have lost motivation, and sleep patterns are erratic (either too much or too little). Often times we hear that they hardly recognize themselves anymore. People may view their grief responses as a weakness – […]
New Year, New Grief
In my grief group this month, one member shared that she is feeling some anxiety as she thinks about the new year approaching, because 2025 was the last year she got to spend with her partner. She expressed that she feels like she’s leaving them behind, knowing they will not be here as she steps […]