Keynote Speaker & Trainer on Grief, Resilience, and Compassionate Care
I help healthcare teams, educators, and mission-driven organizations navigate grief, burnout, secondary trauma, and life transitions with research-backed tools and storytelling.
Associate Professor • Author • Thanatologist • Certified Child Life Specialist • Child Development Specialist
Hello,
I'm so glad you stopped by.
For more than two decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of grief, serious illness, child development, and emotional resilience, supporting families and the professionals who care for them.
My work draws from pediatric palliative care, bereavement support, and trauma-informed practice, translating grief science into language and tools people can actually use.
Whether I’m speaking to a room of clinicians, educators, or leaders, my goal is the same: to help people meet suffering with skill, steadiness, and humanity, without burning out or shutting down.
If you’re here as a parent, caregiver, or griever, you’re welcome here too. I offer limited clinical work, but my primary focus is speaking and training professionals who support others through loss, illness, and life’s hardest transitions.
Here is a little about me.
I’ve held roles across hospitals, hospice, academia, and private practice, but what matters most is what those years have taught me about grief and the people who carry it:
I’ve held the hand of a child who is at the end of life and helped them create a lasting legacy for their parents and siblings.
I’ve sat with the enormity of grief, the depth of despair, as a mother questions her identity after her only child dies.
I’ve held space for those who can’t find solace, comfort, or validation for their ambiguous losses.
I’ve fostered the development of resilience and coping strategies for children diagnosed with chronic illnesses and life-limiting illnesses.
I’ve supported those struggling with chronic pain and illness to take back their life one small step at a time.
I’ve cultivated a space for people to feel safe enough to explore their creativity, passions, and honor their true purpose.
In all of these experiences, no matter the circumstance, I supported people through the most challenging time of their life.
The result?
Each person felt validated, seen, heard, empowered, and was able to face whatever life stressor met them with a tool box of newly created coping techniques that fostered the development of resilience.
I can’t fix the pain you are experiencing. But I can help you learn how to navigate through it.
Speaking Topics
Topics I speak about include:
Grief-informed leadership and workplace culture
Supporting employees after loss, illness, or trauma
Burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress
Caring for grieving children and families (healthcare + schools)
Pediatric palliative care, end-of-life, and meaning-making
Communication tools for hard conversations
Training & Background
With over 20 years of clinical experience, I fuse a variety of methods to meet my clients where they are and walk with them to where they want to grow. My work draws from attachment theory, psychoanalytic psychology, child development, creative expression, thanatology studies, and strengths-based approaches that recognize our inherent resilience.
Advanced Degrees, Certifications, & Trainings.
Ph.D., Integral & Transpersonal Psychology
M.A., Transpersonal Psychology
M.A., Thanatology/Community Public Health
B.A., Child Life
Certified Child Life Specialist
Fellow in Thanatology
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach
Compassionate Bereavement Care® provider
Certificate in Creative Expression
Ongoing training in Infant Mental Health, Infant Parent Psychotherapy, & Therapeutic Play Techniques
“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create”.
— Dr. Maria Montessori