Grief Creativity Coaching was born from the healing experience of writing and collaging about my husband and son after their deaths. Have you found, as I did, that you want to talk about your departed family, friends or pet while others don’t want to listen? Together we will hold your love and grief, as well as your loved ones themselves, with respect to honor their lives and the connection you have with them. 

I will listen to your stories – whatever you want to share of happy moments, lost opportunities, regrets and triumphs of connection – and support you in discovering the particular way(s) you could choose to share those stories, those memories, their lives, first with yourself, and then with others if you wish. 

Grief Creativity Coaching is not therapy, and it is not meant to be long term. It is intended as transitional coaching – not to rush you through your grief; quite the contrary – but to allow you to touch your depth to find creative self-expression. Like the Lotus blossoming with beauty out of the mud at the bottom of the pond. 

My personal way of alchemizing my grief is by writing, collaging and performing. Your way might be singing your loved one’s favorite songs or writing new ones. You might create a Book of Memories to share with family or friends in picture form, or written storytelling or both. You might move your body to create a dance to show your love and sorrow, journal or paint a portrait. Through our connection, we will explore together at a natural, gentle pace what would work best for you. 

Grief Creativity Coaching creates an open play space to explore your known or emergent creative abilities and to discover what activities would enrich the soil of your heart where your tears flow as fertilizer. 

Contact Mary for a FREE 15 MINUTE CONSULTATION to see if

Grief Creativity Coaching could benefit you. Suggested price: $100 per hour

WHAT IS GRIEF CREATIVITY COACHING?

MARY’S BACKSTORY:

I began my career as a therapist in the late 1970s with a humanistic model of therapy that believed, “We Heal by Contributing, We Learn by Teaching.” We used no medical diagnoses or labeling of emotional distress. We believed very strongly that the human spirit wants to heal and can become whole despite enormous tragedy and loss. 

When my husband, John Guillermin, a big time director in the 1970s died, there was no book about his 34 feature films directed from 1950 to 1986. I began what became a four year project to publish the first ever book about John’s body of work. “John Guillermin: The Man, The Myth, The Movies,” was published by Precocity Press in 2020 and won two bronze awards in the independent publishing industry in 2022.  Celebrating John’s films and our marriage while working in company with the other contributors proved transformative in dealing with life alone after 17 years together.

Fast forward several years, and after my adopted son died in February 2024 I used my writing abilities to create one-woman shows about our unusual bond and our time together. I immersed myself in Michael’s voice recordings, photographs and our text communications. This enabled me to feel connected to Michael within the loving bond we had shared. Each time I perform on stage and listen to the conversation with Michael I crafted out of a one hour interview he had had with podcaster Nick van der Kolk of loveandradio.org, I enjoy anew the feeling of being with my son.

I am a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (CA # 52868) with personal experience of loss and grief and of the powerful healing effect of celebrating my loved ones and finding meaning in life despite my losses.