WELCOME.
I’m Laurie Rich, grief coach.
Yes. You Can Be Happy Again in Widowhood.
Grief Coaching for Widows
We grieve because we loved.
I invite you to walk your grief journey with someone who truly understands the devastation of the primary loss of your person along with your countless secondary losses.
Your commitment to self knowledge, self development, self care, and personal growth can help you heal.
Life Coaching for Widows
I know how impossible it may feel right now because I too have walked this path, but you can create a new life filled with purpose, meaning, and joy because of your loss — not in spite of it.
From this time of earth-shattering grief can come phenomenal growth as you define who you are now and learn what you want your life to become.
You’ve Heard So Many Things Like This…
“You should move on.”
“Look on the bright side.”
“The first year is the hardest, then you’ll be fine.”
“You shouldn’t be sad when there's so much to be grateful for.”
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“They’re in a better place now.”
“I know exactly how you feel.”
“You should be happy for the time you had with them.”
“You're still young. You can get married again.”
“They would want you to stop grieving.”
“At least you’ll always have your memories.”
“You should stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
“It’s time to get over it — it’s been [x] years.”
“At least they aren’t suffering anymore.”
“[God/the universe] only gives you as much as you can handle.”
“You need to get out and date.”
Though often well intended, statements like these aren’t just hurtful and judgmental — they also minimize your love and your loss. They invalidate your grief and pain.
As a widow myself, I know there is no “moving on” or “getting over it.”
But I also know you have the ability to commit to yourself to create forward momentum and personal growth. To choose to walk directly into the center of your grief and pain instead of walking past it. To acknowledge, feel, and honor every moment of it.
Grief is the flip side of joy — you grieve because you loved. Grief and joy can (and will) coexist as you focus on personal growth, transformation, and ultimately thriving instead of just surviving.
When you choose to feel it, you can heal it.
Yes, you can be happy again.
Yes, you can live a meaningful life again.
Grief Coaching
Learn healthy ways to grieve your loved one, achieve personal growth, and find a way forward in life.
Life Coaching
Create lasting change and a new life filled with purpose, meaning, and joy.
Transformation Coaching
In your life, what would transformation look like? How would you feel? How would you be different?
Who is Coaching For?
I work with women and those identifying as women who have been widowed from their spouse, partner, or companion. I coach widows of all ages, partnership statuses, loss circumstances, and faiths/belief systems.
What Coaching Is
Coaching provides personalized support and expert guidance that’s entirely based on your unique self, experiences, and needs. Coaching can help guide you through a healthy grief process and support you as you adjust, transition, reimagine, plan, and activate.
Coaching encourages you, gives you new tools, and can help you discover the meaning of your life after loss. We’ll work together with, and through, your grief with the goal of creating confidence, clarity, and forward momentum in your new life.
Coaching can help you visualize a purposeful future without your loved one, identify challenges associated with your grief to help you move past them, and begin focusing on life’s possibilities.
Coaching is a comprehensive process that may involve many areas of your life, including personal, health, finance, work/business, relationships, education, and recreation.
What Coaching Is Not
Coaching does not treat mental health disorders as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Coaching is not a substitute for counseling, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, mental health care, or substance use treatment.
Working with me might be right for you if:
You’ve been widowed a year or longer.
You generally feel functional and capable many or even most days of the week, although you are still experiencing the physical, mental, and/or emotional impacts of grief and loss.
You’re ready to commit to taking intentional action toward your healing.
You’re ready to define purpose and meaning in your new life.
You’re ready to invest in yourself so you can learn, grow, and begin shaping your future.
You’re ready for a future self who is thriving instead of just surviving — even if right now you may not understand how you’ll get there or even believe that you will.
It may not be the right time if:
Essential self care, such as basic personal hygiene or eating nourishing meals, is still a struggle for you.
Your widow fog is still so intense that you’re unable to follow what’s happening when you read a book or watch a TV show.
There are so many demands on your time that you’re unable to commit to regular coaching sessions and self-care practices.
With everything you have on your plate, it’s not yet an option to put yourself first.
It’s still too painful to open up, examine, and share your thoughts, emotions, and experiences.
You don’t have the bandwidth yet to actively work on creating change in your life.
My Story
In 2019, while the two of us were traveling out of state, my husband Larry died of a heart attack and double brain aneurysm.
We weren’t together when it happened. I’d stayed behind in our hotel room while he went out to buy a few things and bring back dinner. It took me some time to figure out that something was wrong because I wasn’t expecting him back at a specific time. It took me even longer to find him because I didn’t know exactly where he had gone. I was alone in a huge city without a vehicle (he had taken the rental car). By the time I finally found Larry and then got to him, he was on life support. His body was still living, but Larry was no longer there.
I went on a business trip with my husband and came home to a life without him.
I remember standing in our living room three weeks after he died and saying out loud “I need help. I don’t know how to do this.”
Advanced Certified Grief Coach
Master Certified Life Coach
Master Certified Transformation Life Coach
Certified Integrative Somatic Practitioner
Certified Purpose Quest Coach
Certified Forgiveness Life Coach
Certified Life Story Coach
Certified Professional Life Coach
QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper
“Talking to Laurie often feels like being embraced by your oldest friend — there is just something so comforting, caring, and warm that come from her and her words. I met Laurie a month after my spouse passed and she has been a wonderful person to help navigate my grief with. I always feel very seen and heard by Laurie. She has a knack for dialing in to the heart of what you’re saying and helping you dig a little deeper into it or looking at things from a clearer perspective.”
– Liz O.
“Laurie is a caring and empathetic listener who has an amazing way of making you feel seen and heard, which as a widow is so important — I frequently feel invisible since my husband died. She is always fully present and supportive and she also gives you things to consider that are applicable and appropriate. Every time I talk with her I feel hopeful, encouraged, and loved. Having her as a mentor and someone who really understands has been invaluable.”
– Hope G.
“Laurie has a unique ability to listen from the heart. She has inspired and mentored me for the past three years, and I attribute much of my personal growth to her mentorship.”
– Barbara D.
Are You
Ready to
Get Started?
To determine if coaching with me could be a fit for you, book your free 30-minute discovery session. (Please note: All coaching sessions are conducted on Zoom or via telephone call.)
During our session we’ll introduce ourselves to each other and discuss:
- Your loss circumstances and where you are in your grief journey
- What you hope to gain from coaching
- What you have tried in the past to help you, and if it was effective
- What’s most challenging for you in your grief
- Intentions you have for your future life
We’ll also discuss coaching options, the investment in your healing and growth, and next steps.
If we’re a good match, we can start working together right away so you can begin moving from merely surviving to thriving.