You are not broken —
you are becoming.
Personal grief coaching and creative group soulwork for mothers healing after loss.
Grief Coach
Have you ever felt like you need to hide your grief and pretend like you’re feeling better than you actually are?
I remember people asking me just one month into my grief,
“Do you feel better yet?”
It felt like they couldn’t handle how much pain I was in, so they wanted to rush me. I think people in grief run into this very often.
Perhaps you worry that your grief is too heavy for your friends and family to shoulder. You don’t want to burden them, so you stop talking about it.
Grief needs to be witnessed in order to heal.
If the people you normally go to for support either don’t want to talk about your grief or can’t handle the scope of it, then grief coaching might be the support you really need. Working with a grief life coach allows you to process emotions at your own pace and in a safe environment.
Prefer to sit back and listen these days?
Allow me to say hello, hold your hand, and guide you through how the community works.
I am here to listen and help make your grief feel lighter.
Prefer to sit back and listen these days?
Allow me to say hello, hold your hand and guide you through how the community works.
What is grief coaching?
Grief coaching is a safe space to help you befriend your grief. A grief life coach helps you reconnect with yourself while honoring your loss.
What if you didn’t just have to wait for “time to heal all wounds”?
Rather than trying to rush through it, outrun it, or stay busy and ignore it, grief coaching provides a space where you can feel supported and courageous enough to be with what is.
Some people still feel the same way as they did in early grief, years later, because they’ve been suppressing it.
Trying not to feel your grief may have caused you to go numb and not feel fully alive. As a result, you may be staying within a narrow range of emotions to ensure nothing triggers you.
Suppressing your grief causes your life to become limited and small.
With the help of a grief support coach, you might be surprised how much fuller and more vibrant your world can become.
Hi I’m Jen Ripa
I lost my son in 2016 to cancer. He was 16 years old. Four years later, I suddenly lost my husband of 25 years at the beginning of the pandemic. I thought my life was over both times. I did not think I could go on.
One essential part of my healing process was working with a grief life coach. I would have felt extremely lost without her help, support, and guidance.
My grief life coach helped me to have compassion for myself. One of the key things I did was to pull back on anything that wasn’t essential, so I could manage my energy and survive. She helped me to move up my priority list so I could focus on my healing. She reminded me to cut myself slacker than I was ever able to before.
I had never lived with a problem that had no solution. My grief was simply unsolvable. I just had to figure out how to live with it. My grief life coach helped me to sit with this truth and, over time, carry it differently. She helped me normalize how difficult grief was and how we experience contradictory emotions — like guilt, regret, shame, rage, longing, beauty, love, and gratitude.
She also helped me identify how to handle the really tough days such as holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries of their deaths.
This support helped me keep my head above water on the tough days and move forward with courage in between them.
Is Grief Coaching Right For Me?
If you are experiencing sadness, isolation, emotional numbness, a feeling of being stuck or misunderstood… My grief coaching can help.
Suppressing your grieving process only prolongs the journey and causes more suffering for you. Seeking help from a grief life coach is a powerful step on your healing journey.
Anyone at any stage of grief for a loss of any kind could benefit from grief coaching. It doesn’t matter how long ago you encountered your loss.
In our coaching together, you can choose from a wide range of creative and somatic healing practices that appeal to you. A grief support coach like me helps you explore these tools safely.
In our coaching together, you can choose from a wide range of creative and somatic healing practices that appeal to you.
Grief Yoga
Non-strenuous, chair-based practices that move grief out of the body.
Art Making
Sense: SIGHT & touch
Delight in color texture and being able to create and control something when life feels uncontrollable.
Gong/Meditation
Sense: SOUND
Perfect if you struggle to clear your head, the gong will help your brain arrive straight into a deep meditative state.
Creative Writing
Sense: SIGHT & TOUCH
Writing is a tool to understand and work through your grief while sharing your stories with the group.
Essential Oils & Flower Essences
Sense: SMELL & TASTE
A gentle way to transform mental and emotional energy.
Grief & Health Coaching
Sense: SOUND & SIGHT
A holistic look at your whole self: body, mind and spirit — Where do you need tending?
She is an extraordinarily attentive listener, seems to know precisely the right questions to ask, and always responds with love and compassion. I highly recommend that anyone looking to move through challenging situations work with Jen.”
Stephanie L.
I believe that the experience of grief is like trying to ride a wild mare.
It’s powerful, beautiful, intense, and at times, overpowering. We can’t take our grief, but we can learn to dance with it.
The intensity of our grief is an expression of the intensity of our love for what we’ve lost.
• There is no timeline or schedule.
• There is no right way to grieve.
• There is nothing to get wrong.
Our grief takes us on a journey to the center of ourselves and asks us to get to know ourselves again, almost as if from scratch.
My grief coaching philosophy and approach support you with tools I’ve amassed over my lifetime so that you will re-emerge in your life again, stronger and more whole than you thought possible.
You know that grief isn’t a linear journey from denial to acceptance.
During our time together, we’ll dip in and out of these phases, allowing you to process your grief at your own pace. Our intention is that, over time, you’ll have fewer caterpillar days and more good days, focused on the future as we work through grief coaching together.
Your higher self-guides your grief healing process. You are getting to know yourself again and leading yourself back home. My grief support coach approach offers you multiple ways to nurture yourself. Working together, we will discover what tools will support you best.
Caterpillar Phase
This might happen around anniversary dates or holidays. Or anytime you’re trying to make a big step forward, like date a new person, move or get a new job. This is when you’re in the mud with your grief.
Cocoon Phase
In the cocoon, the caterpillar turns completely into this goo and then reassembles. In a similar way, your grief journey completely reshapes your life. This community guides you to be intentional in this journey.
Luna Moth Phase
Now that you’ve done some healing and your grief is no longer owning you, what do you really want? How can you look forward and embrace life more fully?
Have you ever had the experience of being in nature and suddenly your worries and concerns feel more amicable and not as overwhelming?
One reason for this is that you were able to loosen your attachment to thinking for a short while and be immersed in your senses.
The coaching tools that I employ allow you to drop into your senses and set your grief down for a short period of time. When you return to your grief, you may have felt a shift or have a new perspective.
This small space can be very beneficial because people in grief can feel that grief is all that there is and that they, themselves are their grief.
A multisensory approach to grief recovery allows people to recover a sense of self through being more present in their body through their senses.
We often cannot control the things that life sends to us, but we can control our response to it. We can be brave and creative in how we respond to grief. Grief life coach methods encourage writing, art, and mindfulness to transform pain into growth.
Let’s explore the creative healing tools we’ll be playing with:
Through grief yoga, sound therapy, and meditation, clients have the opportunity to move the energy of grief out of the body and feel a sense of lightness and relief.
Additionally, the journey through grief and the rebuilding of a new life after profound loss is both a brave and creative act — something a grief support coach and grief life coach can compassionately help you achieve.
Let’s explore the creative healing tools we’ll be playing with:
Through grief yoga, sound therapy, and meditation, clients have the opportunity to move the energy of grief out of the body and feel a sense of lightness and relief.
Additionally, the journey through grief and the rebuilding of a new life in the wake of profound loss and a brave and creative act.
Grief Yoga
One thing no one tells you is how physically painful grief is. My back felt like it was on fire and my chest felt like broken glass.
Grief yoga is incredibly effective in moving grief and trauma out of your body, shifting from a space of constant stress and worry to calm.
I started practicing it after my late husband died and I was struggling with panic attacks. Within two months, I noticed I wasn’t having any more panic attacks or if I felt them coming on I knew I could mitigate them. It was remarkable!
Grief yoga can be done all in a chair. It’s not physically demanding, is easy, accessible and doesn’t require any yoga experience. Best of all, you don’t have to invest a huge amount of time each week to experience shifts.
Art Making
It has been scientifically proven that if you do something with your hands for just 20 minutes, without being overly tied to the outcome, there’s a profound shift in your body’s vagal system, which controls your ability to relax.
Art making is a gentle, non-confrontation way to express what you may not be able to put into words. If you have no art experience, that is perfect. We are not here to judge or critique each other’s art or make fine art masterpieces. We’re here for the process and how it will make us feel.
The visual delight of playing with color, the soothing feeling of getting your hands dirty with clay and the joyful feeling of creating something from nothing will enliven your day and give you something light to look forward to.
Gong & Meditation
I know what you’re thinking – how can you possibly expect me to clear my mind and meditate when my mind is on overdrive?
That’s where the power of the gong comes in. The sound of the gong helps your brain arrive at a state of deep meditation without the work of meditation. Amazing, right? Most people who go to meditate find quieting the noise feels like an uphill battle and learning to meditate during a crisis is not the right time.
The gong is our shortcut to getting to the alpha (calm focus or flow) and possibly theta (deep relaxation) states in the brain. That alone is deeply healing because you may not have had an experience of being awake and relaxed for months or even years.
Creative Writing
A year after my son, Oliver died, I started writing. That was one of the most transformational things I did for my grief because I was able to witness myself tell my grief story in a lot of different ways and have compassionate listeners listen.
Brene Brown tells us that guilt and shame multiply in the dark. Openly expressing our grief story allows us to dislodge anything that might be stuck to let more love, light and self-acceptance in. We’ll each write a response to our interpretation of a piece of contemporary poetry and read it out loud to the group. You don’t have to worry about what other people are going to say. You just get to be witnessed and then we move on which is deeply healing.
Essential Oils & Flower Essences
Smell is a powerful sense that can have a profound impact on our emotions, mood, and overall well-being.
When you repeatedly experience a particular scent in a relaxing context, your brain forms associations between that scent and the feeling of relaxation. Over time, the scent alone can trigger a relaxation response.
Flower essences are a really gentle way to balance our emotions and promote relaxation by working on emotional and energetic levels.
Essential oils in a diffuser are an effective way to fall asleep, which is a common struggle when navigating grief.
Holistic Grief Coaching
As a certified Grief Educator, certified Life Coach, certified Health Coach, and certified Expressive Arts Coach, I can help you look at your self-care holistically across your mind, body and soul.
From offering nutritional advice if you struggle to remember to eat, to supporting you to uncover your purpose after loss and how to make meaning out of loss that feels senseless, I am here to support you. My core belief is that there is no timeline for grief and that everyone grieves differently. I will guide you with compassion and non-judgment.
I will lean on my own personal grief experiences, 15 years of experience working with clients, and a variety of healing modalities to support you in moving forward in your grief healing journey.
I have been so impressed by Jen’s capacity for deep listening. Her leadership skills are evident in her ability to carefully coach participants to go a little deeper or see a new angle while she safely holds the space around their vulnerability.”
Susan B.
I won’t just be teaching you based on my own lived experience.
I also have 15+ years of coaching, creative and healing experience. I have been a life coach and sound healer for 15+ years as well as a yoga and meditation teacher for 6 years.
I also bring with me the experience of the following certifications:
• Certified Grief Educator
• Certified Master Coach
• Certified Expressive Arts Coach
• 3 x 200 hour yoga certifications.
• BFA in Fine Art and lifelong artist
• Certified Wild Writing Teacher
• Certified Reiki Master
• Certified Shamanic Practitioner
• Certified Flower Essence Practitioner.
This means you know I’m qualified to help all different kinds of people, with their own unique grief journey and will never shoe-horn you into approaches just because they worked for me.
The Thrivologie Private Grief Coaching Program
Six or twelve session packages will support you in transforming your grief. What I can promise is that you will have more self-awareness to recognize where you get stuck and what tools are most helpful to them in those moments. Over the time we work together, we can tailor and self-care your grief support and create a support system that is specific to you.
Your Choice of Healing Tools
One on One Coaching
Customized Resource Kit
Frequently Asked Questions
How long are the coaching calls?
Are all of the coaching sessions on Zoom?
Do I have to be on-camera or can I have it switched off?
How do I know if I’m ready to do this work?
What is the weekly time commitment?
What if I want to cancel my coaching contract?
Is this a replacement for grief therapy?
If you are feeling extreme distress and feel you might cause yourself harm, please seek the help of a mental health professional immedately.
Can I try a sample coaching session with Jen?
I still have a question, can I send you an email?
Grief coaching can transform your grief, even if you’re thinking…
“I don’t know if I have the energy for grief coaching.
Oh, I hear you. I know how draining grief can be and how even small things can feel challenging. The important thing to remember is that this work won’t feel like “work”. It’s light. It’s gentle. It’s creative. It’s designed so you don’t have to use up a bunch of mental energy thinking. In fact, you’ll likely find it is actually energy-giving, not energy-draining. You’ll reconnect with those childlike parts of yourself you’ve likely disconnected from like play, delight, creation and imagination – those activities where time stops and relief is found.
And on those days that your grief feels too heavy and all consuming to transform or shift, I’ll sit with you in the mud, holding your hand. I promise.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to heal and move on. Giving up my grief seems like I would be giving up the person I lost and not honoring their memory.”
I know you might be feeling a little lost right now. It si common tho feel that holdiong onto the groef feels like the only way to hold onto your person. Eventually you will come to see that you are not your grief. You will also eventually come to see that living with more lightness and joy not only honors your person, but helps you to maintain an even more pwerful connection with your them.
It’s time for the sun to come back out for you. I see you. I am holding you in my heart.
“Not only has Jen done her own deep healing work, she is also an expert at holding sacred space for women and guiding them on their inner journey of healing, growth and transformation.” Michelle B.