Introducing Support Systems Across North America Who Are Helping Healing Hearts
- Brainz Magazine
- Nov 25
- 9 min read
Karen Bulinski Mathison is a grief coach, death doula, and CEO of The Naked Grief, blending deep expertise with lived experience to help others transform pain into meaning. Her work is raw, relatable, and rooted in real-life healing.
As the holidays approach, I want to take a moment to say thank you. This season can be especially tender for grieving hearts, and I am deeply grateful for the grief warriors I have the privilege of sharing space with. Each of us brings our own niche, education, and way of supporting others, but together we form a collective whose shared goal is simple, to help hurting people feel seen, supported, and less alone during some of the most sensitive seasons of loss.
Grief is heavy enough without having to hunt for help in a thousand different places.
If you’ve ever tried to find support after a death, divorce, diagnosis, or any life-shattering loss, you already know how confusing it can be. There are therapists, coaches, podcasts, camps, and apps, but very few places that say, “Here are trusted grief warriors who get it. Start here.”
This piece is my way of saying thank you to some of the voices, communities, and creators who hold space for grief with courage, truth, and heart. Together, they remind us that no one has to carry loss alone.
What follows is not a complete directory. It’s a growing circle of supportive grief warriors across North America, people and places I trust, who are doing powerful work in their own corners of the grief world.
DEAD Talks and GriefJourney
Founder / Host: David Ferrugio
GriefJourney is a grief-support app that offers personalized daily reflections, guided rituals, journaling tools, and ways to gather memories of loved ones. It uses a simple onboarding questionnaire to tailor each person’s experience and delivers weekly themes that blend personal stories, insights, and thoughtful prompts. The goal isn’t to “get over grief” but to learn to live with it, turning isolation into connection and loss into meaning.
The customization is what sets it apart. The app adapts to how recent your loss is, how many people you’re grieving, and the type of loss you’re carrying. The result is daily support that reflects your reality, not a generic “one-size-fits-all” grief script. It is robust enough to stand on its own and flexible enough to be used alongside any other support system, including therapy, coaching, groups, or the other grief resources featured in this article.
DEAD Talks is a candid, thought-provoking podcast that opens up the conversations most people avoid, including death, grief, loss, and what it means to truly live. Hosted by David Ferrugio, who lost his father on 9/11, the show blends vulnerability, curiosity, and humor to make difficult topics feel human and accessible. Each episode features guests from all walks of life, including experts, public figures, survivors, afterlife practitioners, and everyday people with extraordinary stories. Together, they explore how grief shapes identity, how we move with it, and how confronting death can teach us more about life.
With the combination of DEAD Talks and GriefJourney, David’s work supports grievers in two powerful ways, deep, honest conversations they can listen to any time and daily, customized guidance they can carry in their pocket.
Website: deadtalks.net
Website: studio.com/griefjourney
Instagram: @deadtalkspodcast / @griefjourneyapp
Get Griefy Magazine and Small Business Collective
Founder: Kera Sanchez
Kera Sanchez is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Get Griefy Magazine, a grief publication infused with life. Get Griefy seeks to normalize the grief experience by offering comfort, tools for healing, and a vibrant community built on authenticity, creativity, and connection.
Through powerful storytelling and visual inspiration, the magazine and its accompanying Get Griefy Small Business Collective reimagine what grief support can look like. The Collective connects grief informed professionals, creating a space for collaboration, growth, and expanded reach within the grief and wellness community.
Get Griefy’s social media presence adds levity to loss, using humor, pop culture, and modern trends to make difficult conversations about grief more approachable and human.
“We don’t seek to emphasize the silver lining in grief. We aim to spotlight those who harvest the silver. Don’t dim your grief. Don’t dim your life. We’re still living, come join us.”
Website: getgriefymagazine.com
Instagram: @getgriefymagazine
LinkedIn: Get Griefy Magazine
Heroes in Grief Podcast
Host: Tom Bender
Heroes in Grief is a podcast hosted by Tom Bender that shares inspiring stories of individuals who have transformed their grief into meaningful action. Each episode features guests who have navigated profound loss and found ways to honor their loved ones through advocacy, creativity, service, and community building.
Tom is a certified grief educator with a rich background in music and ministry. After the death of his son, Jeff, in February 2023, his life’s focus shifted toward walking alongside others in their grief. That lived experience, combined with his training and years of supporting grieving families, shapes the compassionate and grounded way he holds space for every conversation.
Across the series, listeners hear honest, hope filled stories that validate the depth of grief while also highlighting the resilience, love, and purpose that can grow in its wake. In addition to the podcast, Tom offers resources, community connections, and opportunities for one to one and group support, reminding listeners that they are never as alone as their pain might make them feel.
Check out “Heroes in Grief” on major podcast platforms.
Website: heroesingrief.com
Blair Kaplan Venables
Blair Kaplan Venables is a pioneering social media marketing strategist and number one best selling author whose clients credit her with turning platforms into powerful engines for growth. For more than a decade, she has taught social media and marketing at institutions like the British Columbia Institute of Technology, supported brands across industries, and spoken on national stages. Her expertise has been featured in outlets such as Forbes, USA Today, SUCCESS, CBC Radio, and Thrive Global.
She is now expanding her work in the grief space through the Grief and Resilience Expert Certification Program, a three week hybrid training based on her Navigating Grief Framework that begins January 6, 2026. It equips professionals and lived experience leaders to support grieving humans with trauma informed, resilience focused tools.
Website: blairkaplan.ca
Website: theglobalresilienceproject.com
Instagram: @blairfromblairland
Golden Heart Grief Support and Education
Founder: Holly Gainsboro
Holly Gainsboro is the founder of Golden Heart Grief Support and Education and a Grief Support Specialist, Coach, and Grief Educator. Her passion and purpose is to be present with those who have experienced loss, guiding them through the intense and often disorienting feelings of grief and gently leading them toward a place of peace and hope while honoring the depth of their relationships and experiences.
Through Golden Heart, Holly combines multiple certifications in grief education, grief support, somatics, mindfulness, and holistic wellness to meet grievers where they are and honor the many ways grief can look and feel. She reminds her clients that healing is ongoing and nonlinear, more like the ebb and flow of the ocean than a finish line. She invites them to feel their feelings, find safe people and practices, and trust that they are the experts on their own grief.
Website: goldenheartgrief.com
Podcast: “Creating Space for Grief and Hope” on Apple Podcasts
The Days Are Full, Grief Coaching for Widowed Moms
Founder: Sarah Gallagher
Sarah Gallagher is a widowed solo parent, coach, and founder of The Days Are Full. Widowed at 37 with two young children, she quickly realized how few resources truly spoke to her reality, solo parenting through grief while trying to rebuild a life that still felt like hers. What began as her own search for support became a mission to create what she did not have, a space for widowed moms to feel understood, guided, and no longer alone.
Her approach is honest, empathetic, and deeply grounded, naming the hard without sugar coating it and offering hope without bypassing grief. She is the creator of Rise Like a Phoenix group coaching and Reclaim Your Life one to one coaching and leads the 5,600 member Facebook community Widowed, Solo Parenting, You’re Not Alone. Each winter, she hosts Surviving the Merry Madness, a week long online space for widowed moms to find connection, validation, and renewed energy in the quiet and lonely days between Christmas and the new year.
Website: thedaysarefull.com
Root and Rise Grief Healing
Founder: Jessica Rowden
Root and Rise Grief Healing is for the griever whose body is carrying what words cannot quite say.
Founder Jessica Rowden is a Certified Grief Coach and Educator, Yoga Teacher, and Mind Body Coach who brings together nervous system regulation, movement, and grief education to support healing on every level. Drawing from yoga practices, somatic experiencing, and mindfulness, she helps clients reconnect with their bodies so they can safely feel, process, and integrate their grief instead of staying stuck in it.
Through one to one grief coaching, mind body healing sessions, support groups, and public speaking, Root and Rise offers a compassionate and holistic path forward for people navigating losses of all kinds, including death, estrangement, divorce, and other life transitions. Jessica’s work is especially powerful for those who feel like they understand grief in their head but still feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or shut down in their bodies.
Website: rootandrisegriefhealing.com
Instagram: @rootandrisegriefhealing
Wholehearted Healing Studio
Founder: Melissa Bishop
Wholehearted Healing Studio is where spiritual, energetic, and emotional support meet.
Founder Melissa Bishop guides clients through grief, trauma, and transformation using Reiki, EFT, intuitive readings, mediumship, and her signature Revolutionary Love Program. With her RAW Methodology, Real Talk, Authentic Growth, Lasting Wellness, she helps people break patterns, heal wounds, and reclaim their power.
Melissa specializes in supporting those navigating loss, major life transitions, and the journey back to living authentically, especially when traditional talk only approaches have not been enough. Through her collaboration with The Naked Grief, she co creates and shares membership content, offers additional coaching support, and helps round out all aspects of the healing journey by integrating spiritual and somatic practices alongside grief education.
Through her own lived experiences of challenge and trauma, Melissa understands firsthand how self propelled healing activities such as EFT, Reiki, and energy work can make a meaningful impact, minimizing the intensity of heartache while still honoring and carrying grief. Her presence in the membership space offers a balanced and complementary layer of support for those who are ready to explore healing on multiple levels.
Website: wholeheartedhealingstudio.com
Instagram: @wholeheartedhealingstudio
The Naked Grief, Grief Garden Series and disenFRIENDSchised Podcast
Founder / Host: Karen Bulinski Mathison
The Naked Grief is a comprehensive grief connection platform created to be a continuous support system for healing hearts. Founded by widow, author, and death doula Karen Bulinski Mathison, MS in Mental Health and Wellness with a focus on grief and bereavement, The Naked Grief blends clinical knowledge, lived experience, and raw, honest storytelling.
Under The Naked Grief umbrella, there are multiple ways for grievers and their families to feel seen, supported, and equipped.
The Grief Garden Series offers companion characters and stories that help children and adults name, understand, and work with their emotions after loss. It is designed for homes, schools, and grief programs that need developmentally appropriate tools for hard conversations.
Membership circles and healing content provide customizable access to years of video, audio, and written material that can be aligned with each person’s unique grief journey.
A curated Grief Warrior network brings together trusted grief professionals and communities, like the ones in this article, so grievers do not have to hunt for help alone.
The weekly podcast disenFRIENDSchised looks at disenfranchised grief through the lens of the TV show Friends. Using familiar characters and storylines, the show unpacks the kinds of grief that do not always get casseroles or sympathy cards, blending pop culture, education, and raw honesty.
The heartbeat of The Naked Grief is simple, raw grief, real healing. No sugarcoating, no timelines, just honest support and practical tools for living with loss.
Website: thenakedgrief.com
Instagram: @thenakedgrief
YouTube: TheNakedGrief
Why these connections matter
No single program, podcast, app, or coach is the answer to grief.
But together, these grief warriors form a net, a web of support that catches people in different seasons and different kinds of loss. Some offer education, some offer stories, some offer spiritual or energetic work, some offer structured coaching, and some offer spaces for kids and families to gather and remember.
If you are grieving, or you love someone who is, consider this your reminder:
You do not have to do this alone. There are people and places built for exactly this kind of pain. And there is an entire community of grief warriors who are thankful to walk beside you while you heal.
Read more from Karen Bulinski Mathison
Karen Bulinski Mathison, CEO, Grief Coach, Death Doula
Karen Bulinski Mathison is the founder and CEO of The Naked Grief, LLC, and a grief coach, death doula, and content creator based in Camden, DE. With a master's in mental health and wellness and advanced certifications in grief, coaching, and art therapy, she brings both professional insight and personal understanding to her work. Having navigated multiple profound losses herself, Karen's approach is honest, compassionate, and refreshingly real. She's the creator of the Grief Garden children's stories and is dedicated to transforming pain into purpose. Through her writing, programs, and heartfelt advocacy, Karen empowers others to find hope and healing after loss.
