Life After Loss Academy Reviews: How 5 Grievers Found Peace, Purpose, and Hope
Thinking about joining my online course + community, Life After Loss Academy?
You probably know that it’s a supportive, transformative program for grievers facing all kinds of losses, but it’s normal to wonder: Does this program really work? Will it help me through my unique experience of grief?
The truth is, grief looks different for everyone, and so does healing.
That’s why I’m sharing the stories of five incredible students who joined Life After Loss Academy and used the tools, community, and support they found inside to rebuild their lives. By working through the step-by-step GRIEF Method video lessons and participating in the weekly coaching calls, they created lives of hope, purpose, peace, and joy that they never thought possible.
While each of them enrolled in the course with very different pictures of grief, they all built beautiful lives they love from the lives loss forced them to live—and that’s the core of what I teach inside Life After Loss Academy.
The following testimonials and photos are shared with permission.
Lori: Honoring Her Daughter’s Memory While Setting Boundaries
Lori was reeling after the tragic suicide of her daughter, who was a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. On top of her grief, she endured judgment from her religious and work communities, and was often told that her grief was “too much.”
In Life After Loss Academy, Lori found a community that honored her loss, embraced her big emotions, and gave her the tools to protect her mental health by setting firm boundaries with unsupportive people. Today, Lori practices rituals that celebrate her daughter’s life and channels her pain into meaningful work as a homeless liaison specializing in LGBTQIA+ youth. “It’s heart-wrenching work... but I love it,” she says.
Chris: A Therapist Finds Support and Hope After Losing Her Nephew
Chris, a practicing therapist, was devastated when her 19-year-old nephew died by suicide after a medication side effect led him to a tragic, irreversible decision. She has no children of her own, and felt as if she’d lost a son. In grieving her nephew’s death, Chris was shocked to realize how little grief training she’d received in her career and how unprepared she was to cope with his death. Even fellow therapists judged her for not being able to move on and for being “stuck” in her grief.
Through Life After Loss Academy, Chris was able to reframe her loss not as something to “get over” but as something to fold into her life, honoring her nephew every day. She also gained compassionate tools to help her clients navigate grief. “I’m able to live with grief in a more honest and positive way that I didn’t think was possible before,” she shares.
Julia: Finding Stability in the Midst of One Parent’s Death and Another’s Decline
Julia came to Life After Loss Academy during a whirlwind of grief: mourning her father’s death, her mother’s dementia decline, and the uncertainty of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also faced daily shame at work from managers who had no compassion for her grief.
Inside Life After Loss Academy, Julia reclaimed her sense of stability and power. She was able to do small, enjoyable things again like putter around the house and indulge in slow, mindful tea-drinking—one of her favorite rituals. She also summoned the strength she needed to leave her hostile-to-grief workplace and found a new job at—get this!—a TEA SHOP, working with two widows who welcomed her grief and shared their own experiences with loss.
Tammy: Embracing Grief as a Sacred Companion
Tammy entered Life After Loss Academy grieving a recent divorce and an empty nest. Overwhelmed by loneliness, she poured herself into the course, showing up for every call, watching every video lesson, and completing every assignment.
By the end of the course, Tammy discovered that grief wasn’t her enemy but a companion helping her navigate the loneliness of major transition. She says, “I gave myself permission to grieve. It’s been a sacred journey, one that’s helping me put my broken heart back together.”
Kim: Rebuilding After Back-to-Back Losses
Kim joined Life After Loss Academy after five years of consecutive losses including the devastating loss of a job she held for many years, the loss of her tight-knit religious community, and the loss of her health in the form of a grueling cancer diagnosis and treatment. She described herself as “not belonging anywhere” and felt as if surrendering to the pain and overwhelm of grief would destroy what little there was left of her.
Inside Life After Loss Academy, she found a supportive community of others who were grieving and the language she needed to surrender—but not be swallowed by!—her grief. Learning to see grief as a part of herself helped her reconstruct her identity and form a new, deeper relationship with god and the people around her.
Using the tools she gained in Life After Loss Academy, she said yes to a new job where she feels valued and felt brave enough to try out many different churches until she found a new one where she belongs. Her comment in the private Facebook group is probably my favorite in all my years leading Life After Loss Academy:
FAQs About Life After Loss Academy
I’m grieving a loss other than death. Is Life After Loss Academy for me?
Yes. Life After Loss Academy acknowledges that grief includes both death and non-death losses. (That’s why it’s called Life After Loss Academy, not Life After Death Academy!) Past students have followed its framework to grieve:
divorce / breakup
major diagnosis
estrangement
separation from religious community
pet loss
financial loss
a geographic move or symbolic loss of home
“felt” losses such as loss of identity, innocence, safety, creativity, and spirit / connection to the Divine
What if my grief is fresh? Or from years ago?
Past students have enrolled at time frames ranging from a few months after a devastating loss to years down the road. No matter how long it’s been since your loss(es), LALA’s framework is designed to help you reorient to the world and form a lifelong relationship with grief.
Can I join from anywhere?
Yes. Life After Loss Academy is available to students all over the world. Current students are located in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic. All that’s required is a connection to the Internet. Please know that I am only fluent in English, so an excellent English language proficiency (B2 or above on the CEFR scale) is necessary.
When are the live calls?
Weekly group coaching takes place Thursdays and alternates each week between 10:00am and 6:00pm Central Time to accommodate students worldwide. The monthly schedule is pinned to the top of the private LALA Facebook group. If you can’t make the coaching call live, leave your question in the weekly questions post and I’ll be sure to answer it during the live call. The replay is available immediately and forever, so you can watch it at your convenience.
How long does the average student take to complete the course?
Just like grief, “completing” life after loss has no timeline. Your experience with LALA will depend on what other tools and practices you’ve used to navigate grief thus far, how deeply you engage with the homework and live calls, and how much you’re able to hold focus and attention (because grief brain is REAL, y’all!). That being said, most students start feeling better after completing the first module, GROUND, and most students finish the course anywhere between two and six months.
Keep in mind, that your goal is not to make it to the end of the course, but to build a lifetime partnership with grief. Life After Loss Academy is designed to revisit again and again as new losses inevitably surface in your life.
Now It’s Your Turn: What’s Possible for You and Your Grief?
These five stories illustrate the variety of losses that the GRIEF Method framework supports, and transformative power of joining Life After Loss Academy. Grief can leave you feeling lost, broken, and without purpose, but with practical tools and consistent support, it’s possible to create a life that honors your pain while also embracing hope and joy.
If you’re ready to rebuild after devastating loss, whether a death, divorce, breakup, major diagnosis, or other significant grief event, I’m here to guide you every step of the way.
You can learn more about Life After Loss Academy, read more FAQs about the program, and enroll here.
