After 27 years of a successful career in Corporate finance, I experienced the personal tragedy of losing my son in 2008.
I wasn’t prepared for the heartbreak that unfolded. I was at a complete loss about how to live – let alone work.
How do you go on after such a tremendous loss?
My new journey began.
In profoundly unexpected ways, I found myself guided on two connected paths, which have become how I serve others today:
I mentor leaders navigating how to live life again through big life changes or after loss.
I help companies organize their finances and create money systems that allow them to flourish.
While these two paths may seem worlds apart, they are similar: I help calm the chaos in a judgment-free zone, so you move forward with grace.
You can learn more about my Path of G.R.A.C.E. framework I use with clients here.
On December 20th, 2008, my heart broke into a million pieces; I lost my first son to suicide.
Little did I know that navigating such a tragedy was the beginning of my own Path to G.R.A.C.E.
My mind was filled with impossible questions: What do I do? Where do I go? How can I possibly move forward?
I was in shock, experiencing deep grief – I felt numb and lost. I quickly realized that there was no guidebook for this kind of experience.
I also felt alone. In our society, we don’t handle death well or know how to talk about grief.
I knew I had to start calling family to tell them the news. Those are the calls you never want to make, yet someone had to.
The last conversation with my son was just two weeks prior. What happened? What went wrong? Why didn’t I know he was in a dark place?
I so desperately wanted to see his face… feel his energy… hold him… and hear his voice again.
In an instant, everything in my life changed dramatically.
Life had to slow down.
Before this loss, I was used to going 110 miles an hour as a CFO and running a business with my other son that we built from scratch.
Our bodies and minds have a way of slowing us down when we have to though.
There were times when I could not function. It’s as if the grief told me I could not go on the same way ever again.
I never anticipated that this would lead me to embrace a new way of life. One where I had to learn how to create a whole new normal.
I questioned everything, my existence, life, why I was here, and my purpose. There had to be something more to life.
My heart was nudging me, possibly it was my Soul, Spirit, or God, letting me know that there was something more to experience.
Another nudge… I was introduced to Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) and enrolled in their coaching training and leadership program. This opened up more doors, eventually leading me to The Grief Recovery Method and being trained as a chaplain.
While I tended to my own grief, I had the space to answer those soul-burning questions while serving others with my new coaching skills and eventual certification.
Over the next several years, God kept bringing people who were hurting into my life.
I noticed I could deeply connect to hear their stories of loss and deep despair. We had an intimate bond that no other could share unless they had experienced loss.
This guided my path to learn more about specific ways of helping people.
2007-2008 – Coaching Business Owners
I worked with entrepreneurs in their finances and as a business advisor. I also specialized in providing profit and loss statements and projections for business owners to present to investors
2013-2021 – Co-owned a Business
My other son and I co-owned a thriving business, but due to Covid shutdowns, we closed our doors after 13 years.
2009-2010 – CTI (Co-Active Training Institue) Coaching Certification
After completing the initial training, I joined their leadership program and then became certified in 2011.
2018 – The Grief Recovery Method
In 2018 I found The Grief Recovery Method, which provides support, relief, and lifelong tools for those who have suffered loss. Through this, I gained even more tools to help people navigate and heal from loss and see the loss as a path to personal and spiritual growth.
2018 – Chaplain Training
When a neighbor died in 2018, I was introduced to chaplain work, and that was the next level for deepening my training in how to work with people who experience loss.
2021 – The Path of G.R.A.C.E. was Born
After working with people for over 15 years, I saw how my background as a CFO, a business consultant, and my grief work all came together.
Whether I was helping someone navigate grief or consulting a business on their financial systems, I was helping people calm the chaos and find peace.
I never would have imagined being here, but I’m living my full purpose and helping people.
What do you want more of in your life? A deeper connection to yourself, with family, friends, and or with God/Spirit?
Reach out, connect, share your story with me. What are you feeling that you have not shared with anyone? Are you feeling lost? Hopeless? Disconnected?
Remember, you are exactly where you are and where you should be. There is nothing to fix or nothing to get over. You are suffering from grief, and there is hope.
To learn more about how I work with leaders, go here.
To learn more about my CFO with Heart services, go here.
