From a very young age, I’ve been deeply attuned to those dealing with disability, illness, aging, death, and grief. In high school I volunteered in nursing homes. At Cornell University, I majored in clinical social work, with a focus on medical social work. My first job out of college was working with people with dementia, who of course suffer countless losses. For my second job, I was a hospice social worker for a Philadelphia program.

 

After later earning my masters in clinical social work at Boston University, and working for a Boston home-based hospice program, my life took some unexpected career turns. I eventually went a new direction, into non-profit management and then my own interior design business for the last decade.

​

Now at 50, my life has come full circle, as I return to my passion from over a quarter century ago, working with people experiencing loss, grief, illness and end-of-life. Aside from Life Beyond Loss Grief Coaching, I'm also a recently trained end-of-life doula. I'm in the midst of forming a neighborhood-based collective of doulas. Stay tuned.  
 

It isn't just my professional life that's trained me well to support others in grief. I cared for my mom for the last seven months of her life while she died from cancer when she was 72 and I was 40. I also lost my best friend of a brother to suicide when he was 40, and I was 34. I’ve dealt with significant chronic health issues over the last 20 years which have acquainted me intimately with the relentless daily grief related to your body not letting you experience the things it used to. I’ve also had to reckon with the grief of not being able to bear children or forming the family I always imagined.

​

All to say, between my professional and personal life, I joke that I have a PhD in loss and grief. My life has included countless curve balls and it looks nothing like what I imagined, but I’ve learned how to turn loss and grief into deep meaning, growth, joy, and transformation. With Life Beyond Loss, my mission is to help others do the same.