i understand the pain of what you are going through and whether in group or 1:1, together we will craft and cultivate just the right modalities and memory making skills to help you tend to your grief. rich new soil to weed and water, learn and grow about a healthy and fulfilling way forward, while living with loss.  

i found this work decades after my mother Ellen died in 1993 and knew i had to offer what i so needed long ago. what i know for sure, is that we don’t ever get over grief, but learn to carry it. some days it requires such heavy lifting, we need to learn how and when and where, to put it down.  

living with loss means moving forward with the tools needed to heal and feel whole as we craft and curate meaningful memories and a continued connection to a loved one lost. 

grief needs a better place to live in modern day society and it is my personal mission to bring it out of the shadows and into the daily vernacular so we can become a grief informed and grief fluent world. A place where “i am grieving”, can be answer to “how are you”, that folks can understand.   

let’s explore the modalities that will help you forward, in a way you never imagined possible. 

hi, i’m barri. the chief grief officer™ at the memory circle. i began my formal relationship with grief in 1993, when my mother ellen died suddenly and without warning. gone in a heartbeat at 50. there was little to no grief support back then, and it proved to be a very lonely and isolated feeling to be without her in the world. i would eek her name into conversations and then worry i may be making everyone in the room sad. in talking about her, i connected with others who braved their stories, when i shared mine. 

i began to host classes the day before mother’s day for other motherless daughters and most often heard, “there is no place to go, this was so perfect”. i worked for years as a publicist, editor and later became an author. i realized i needed to open the door for more folks to gather. i believe being seen, heard and witnessed in grief is essential to healing. 

the memory circle was born from those first gatherings. a place to sit shoulder to shoulder with others who had experienced loss of every incarnation. every loss matters. death and non-death loss deserves grief support. have you experienced divorce, estrangement, infertility, health issues, job changes, relocation, empty nesting? bring it to circle.

i have been a collector and memory maker for as long as i can remember. more so since my mom died. combining my background as a certified grief coach, (i have studied with the best, including david kessler, claire bidwell smith, hope edelman and dora carpenter) with my writing background, yoga/meditation certification and prowess for savoring moments in meaning filled ways – makes my work in the space, very much my own. combining these modalities is how i craft your kit and guide your coaching experience with me.

my work has been featured in the washington post, psychology today, maria shriver’s sunday paper, zibby mag, rue magazine, on award winning podcasts, television appearances and radio shows. i support therapists in continuing education to become more grief informed clinicians and companies of all sizes to craft compassionate leadership models and best practices around workplace bereavement and bereavement leave.