Are you open and ready to receive care and support with a grief coach?

When we're deciding whether it's time to explore therapy or other healing modalities, starting our search can be daunting. Doing research helps. So does asking for recommendations from people we trust; reading books about grief and healing; thinking about what we are looking for in an individual, a group or an experience (and making a list of those criteria and values). We can listen to our bodies and let them steer us to what feels aligned. And we can allow ourselves permission to step back and make a different choice, after beginning, if something/someone doesn't feel like the fit we imagined or no longer supports us.

Also crucial is our receptivity to the healing we seek.

Sometimes healing — which is not an end-goal but an ongoing journey — sounds good in theory. Doing the work feels like the right path to pursue. Seeing the changes in others' lives inspires us to take a similar step.

But if we're not truly ready, if we're not open to transformation...to new possibilities...to releasing and letting go...to surrender and radical honesty...we may remain stuck exactly where we are. We might feel we're not getting anything out of our sessions. We may blame the practitioner, the protocol, the process...find excuses to miss an appointment, skip the exercise, bow out of whatever is being asked of us, when our commitment to showing up fully to engage our heart, mind, body and spirit, is part of what activates that deep and liberating work.

When we’ve been running, hiding or in survival mode for so long, it can take time to settle into a sense of safety and comfort in a supportive space. To trust ourselves to speak the truth, to let our guard down and let our emotions show. Some of us may resist moving forward or opt out before the breakthrough, decide it’s too much to sit with the discomfort of getting close to what’s been true in our experience. And some of us turn to words, skimming the surface of our pain by talking and talking, offering story after story, without touching our grief, which wants to be held.

If you're just starting out or are curious about getting support, it might be time for an honest check-in with yourself. Are you truly willing and open to do the work? Even if you feel fear or some resistance — which are both normal — are you ready to make that commitment? What are the patterns, habits, stories, beliefs, people that may get in the way of moving forward on your journey? And what would it mean to you to not only let yourself grieve but to have a healthy relationship with grief? Do you believe you're worthy of walking the path of healing?

Because, dear one, you are... in a space that supports and affirms you and meets you in all the wilds of your grief with empathy, skill and care.