A radical invitation to slow down, reflect, and compost what’s ending so something new can take root.

For the fortunate among us, work is not “just a job”. It’s a rich source of meaning and purpose.
When meaningful work ends—whether through retirement, restructuring or conscious choice—it can feel like a significant bereavement. There can be a lot of grief, which often goes unspoken, unnamed and unacknowledged. This grief is real, touching not only income and status but also daily structure, learning opportunities, belonging and community.

My professional Griefwork began with a focus on Grief in Organisations: supporting leaders, teams and entire systems after a death. These interventions range from one-to-one coaching and team support to rituals designed for organisational healing.

Over time, I realised that workplaces experience significant non-death losses too: beloved leaders leave, cherished projects end, entire business units are divested. These losses result in grief too — both for those leaving, and for those remaining — and impact engagement, identity and culture—and much of the potential distress goes unvoiced and untended.

The result is Stuckness.

Last week, working with a Systemic Constellations colleague, I realised not only how well my personal life experiences have equipped me to support this field of work (Grief in Organisations), but my professional life has done so too. Reflecting on all of the types of work I have done over decades (!) – both paid and non-paid – I see clear themes emerging and enduring.

• Early responsibilities: babysitting, au pairing in a family with a teenager with Down’s Syndrome when I was still a teenager myself, and even cycling kilometres to feed someone else’s cat, taught me reliability and boundaries, and that I could “be the grown-up, even when I still felt like a kid myself”.
• Volunteering: at a women’s refuge and Niteline (a student phone service) in my university days, taught me to stand up to bullies, hold space in crisis and titrate my exposure to (others’) grief and stress without becoming consumed by it.
• Professional consulting: across industries and cultures, I learned trust and creativity, as well as how to face bias and misalignment. I learned to value fairness and equity, to seize opportunities when timing was right, and to leave organisations when my values and need for personal integrity demanded it.
• Pro bono service: from much family volunteer work abroad to ongoing end-of-life hospice volunteering, I discovered that contribution and service are essential to my learning and well-being.
• Life roles: partnering, parenting (including solo parenting) and of course, widowing—life events that deepened my understanding of ongoing transition and deep identity change.

When we make space for endings, honour what has been, new life emerges.
When we integrate lessons and learning, new wisdom arises.

All my life experiences compost beautifully into my evolving work. Duh!

I am now designing and offering GriefWise Retreats for Professionals Leaving Long-Term Careers

• Some people might be moving into retirement.
• Others might want —or need — to find something new.
• Yet others might remain where they are, but need support to navigate major organisational change.

All these scenarios involve transitions.
All of these scenarios involve grief.

Each scenario requires facing endings, and being with the ensuing grief, before new roots can take hold, before new shoots can emerge.

Endings disrupt life as we know it; they challenge our identity and confidence. But when we tend to endings—naming what is over, honouring what work has given us—we release energy for something new.

What I Offer in Professional Transitions and Griefwork

GriefWise Retreats are immersive experiences, highly tailored to your needs and aspirations. They are designed to help you move from disorientation to a renewed sense of identity and purpose.

They run over one, one and a half, or two days.
They can be held on-land – near Geneva (in neighbouring France, under the Jura) – or online.
And they can be facilitated for one person, two to four participants, or a team.

My approach, process and practices include:

• Systemic Perspectives: drawing on my background in organisational psychology, systemic coaching, constellations work, and griefwork, we explore how identity, roles and relationships are affected by the transition.
• Space and Support: to fully acknowledge and integrate what is ending.
• Body & Mind Integration: Somatic practices, movement, and mindfulness are woven through, enabling you to process change and ground new ways of being not just cognitively but also physically and emotionally.
• Creative Reflection & Harvesting: Through guided storytelling, reflective exercises, and time in nature (if working on-land), you identify and consolidate the skills, insights and values gained from your career—creating a personal “harvest” to carry forward.
• Ceremonial Space: we co-create meaningful rituals to mark what has ended and welcome what is emerging. These might include nature-based ceremonies, guided journaling, symbolic objects, and personalised practices that honour your unique story.
• Community & Witnessing: Being witnessed by others on similar journeys reduces isolation and builds solidarity. Circles of listening and dialogue allow participants to share stories, be deeply heard, and offer support in return.
• Emergence & Next Steps: Space for envisioning what comes next, planting seeds of possibility and shaping early steps towards new work, life, or creative endeavours.

Pre- and Post-Retreat Support

Before the retreat, we’ll have a one-hour conversation to clarify your context and intentions. I’ll send some reflection prompts to help you orient and prepare for the work.
After the retreat, I offer a follow-up session to help you integrate and continue the work we’ve begun.

We live in a time of profound disruption and change, and the impact of seismic events – whether at a personal, organisational, societal or environmental level – affects us all deeply.

Many of us have had long, uninterrupted careers, moving from one role to another and another, without taking much stock of our broader lives or the broader world. We may even take our work for granted and build a whole life around it. When work ends and we are forced to stop, we may feel utterly bereft, and need to re-evaluate not just one’s professional self but one’s whole self.

There’s a need to press pause and ask big questions such as:

• What happened?
• What is left?
• What does the world need?
• Who am I now?
• Where now?
• What now?

GriefWise Retreats offer space to integrate what has ended, to consolidate learning, and to imagine what is next, given the times we are in.

Because what comes next is shaped by what we’re willing to feel, to honour, and to let go of.

Pilot Retreats — August & September 2025

If this sounds of interest, I’d love to hear from you.

During August and September 2025, I’m offering a number of pilot retreats ahead of a full launch in the Northern Hemisphere Autumn.

These sessions are available at a significantly reduced rate, in exchange for your reflections and feedback on the process. I’m keen to work with people who are open to sharing their experience—what resonates, what supports your transition, and what could be deepened.

The Pilot Retreats can be held either online or on-land.

A note on on-land sessions:
These come with additional costs—including venue hire (the room alone at the very beautiful location, under the Jura hills, is €300) plus food. While still reduced for pilot participants, the on-land fee will be higher than the online version. I’ll be transparent about all costs and work with you to find what feels right.

Get in touch if this speaks to where you are—or where someone you care about may be.
Let’s compost what’s ending, together, so that new life can emerge.