I am a native of London, UK  now resident in Marin County in Northern California. I am the director of North Bay Grief Recovery, located in San Rafael.  Between 2004 and 2006 I lost my family home in a difficult divorce from a 17 year marriage, my mother unexpectedly died in London, the father of my two children suddenly died and I was unable to attend the funeral.  I found myself unable to eat or sleep and couldn’t stop crying.  I simply wanted the pain to end and contemplated suicide briefly but it was only the thought of the pain I would inflict on my children that prevented me from acting on the thought.  I had a good therapist, friends and family who loved me, I attended traditional grief support groups but nothing seemed to make any difference to the profound grief that welled up powerfully at any time, with waves of sobbing and me bent double from the pain I felt in my center.  A friend referred me to the Grief Recovery Institute and when I called, Russell Friedman answered the phone.  He listened to my story, and told me “No wonder you feel so bad, your heart has been broken.  The good news is we can help you with that”.  For the first time in two years I had a glimmer of hope that I might feel better and to my amazement that actually happened in a few months after I found a partner to work with me, using the GR Handbook.  I was so impressed with the effectiveness of the GR method that I decided to train as a specialist to help others avoid the agony I had suffered.  I had the great good fortune to have been trained by Russell Friedman in 2010.  Since then I have offered outreach programs at my church which are open to the wider community.  I also see individual clients for one-on-one sessions at my office in San Rafael.

I have worked in public relations, owned an employment agency, performed in theater and am a freelance journalist.  I studied at Holborn College in London and Sonoma State University. I volunteered for the Marin Suicide Prevention hotline. I enjoy cooking and have prepared and served meals to the homeless. I am active in spiritual studies and practice Vipassana meditation.  I am the mother of two wonderful adults, one of whom has special needs.   It is a source of tremendous satisfaction and a joy to help grievers recover from the pain of grief that in some cases has lingered for over 40 years.  Recently one of my clients thanked my “for giving me my father back” after years of bitter grief following his death when she was so young.  I’m so grateful for the opportunity to help others as I have been helped by this simple and effective method that works in such a short time.