Heather Stang

Honored to present Mindfulness & Grief: Innovative Tools for Living with Death & Non-Death Loss at the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) Annual Conference, March 2026.

Grief touches every part of our lives: body, mind, relationships, and meaning.

In this session, I shared my 8-step mindfulness-based framework designed to help clinicians support clients in:

• regulating intense emotional and physical responses
• navigating both death and non-death losses
• maintaining continuing bonds
• and making meaning without minimizing pain

This work integrates mindfulness, movement, journaling, and contemporary grief theory to offer:

➡️ structure without rigidity
➡️ compassion without fixing
➡️ practical tools clients can use right away

We also explored something essential to this work:
Before clients can regulate, they co-regulate with us.

Grateful to be part of a community committed to thoughtful, ethical, and compassionate grief care.

Tossed in some local Baltimore music as the background track here, because music heals.

DisenfranchisedGrief TraumaInformedCare GriefCounseling

Feeling adorable, hoping for treats

Just wrapped up a wonderful experience presenting Mindfulness-Based Grief Therapy for ADEC—and I’m feeling so grateful.

Thank you to the Association for Death Education and Counseling for the opportunity to connect with clinicians who truly get it. It’s always a joy to share practical, compassionate tools with professionals who care deeply about showing up well for grieving clients—and for themselves.

I’m developing a more in-depth training through the Mindfulness & Grief Institute this fall. If you’d like to be on the waitlist, send me a private message.

Or, if you’re looking to bring a training to your organization, I’m happy to come to you.

Are you a grief professional looking to bring mindfulness into your work—or deepen the way you already use it?

Join me tomorrow for a 90 minute CE webinar on the 8-Step Mindfulness & Grief System. You’ll walk away with tools to help your clients regulate emotion, reconnect with their bodies, and rebuild life after loss.

🗓️ Tuesday, July 15
⏰ 1pm ET / 10am PT
📍 Register at adec.org

Strawberry Moon from the deck 🍓🌕 😁

Many years ago, I met a remarkable woman in the tender early days of grief after the loss of her husband. I had the honor of witnessing her courageous journey through grief, and years later, through another profound loss—the passing of her daughter. Today, she's making a powerful impact, guiding others through grief and loss on her insightful talk show and podcast.

In this episode of Success Diaries with Teresa Aker revisit the essentials of grieving that matter deeply: sitting gently with difficult emotions, extending compassion to your grieving brain, embracing your unique grief journey, and discovering who you are becoming through it all.

Join us for this heartfelt conversation that goes back to basics and offers comfort, understanding, and hope.

Transform your heartache into love/Author and Grief Therapist Heather Stang Author and Grief Therapist at Mindfulness & Grief Institute2025 Association for Death Education & Counselling Clinical Practice AwardTransform your heartache...

I want to share something that fills me with joy: I’ve been honored with the 2025 Clinical Practice Award from ADEC, the professional organization that’s been my home for over a decade.

This award recognizes innovation in grief support—but truly, this work has always come from lived experience. My own, and yours. Everything I offer has been shaped by the real, raw moments we’ve all faced. We are equally human in this space, and I’ve learned just as much from you as you have from me—if not more.

Your honesty, your grief, your resilience, and your willingness to show up have been my greatest teachers. Thank you for letting me walk beside you.

And I’m also deeply grateful to the visionaries in this field—mentors like Dr. Darcy Harris, Dr. Robert Neimeyer, Dr. Ken Doka, and Dr. William Worden—who helped me merge our lived experience with practical, evidence-based wisdom. They’ve helped me believe that connection is the work.

Thank you for letting me share this moment with you. You are an integral part of this journey, and always will be.

Spoke to an incredible group of elder law attorneys today at the PAELA Winter Conference, and I’m so grateful for the conversations that followed. So many attendees shared how my talk was helpful not just for their clients, but for their own lives, too.

Elder law is absolutely a grief-adjacent profession. These attorneys are in the trenches, helping families navigate end-of-life planning, loss, and all the complexities that come with it. It was an honor to offer insights rooted in thanatology and self-care—because supporting others through grief doesn’t mean ignoring your own.

Thank you, PAELA, for welcoming me into this space! Let’s keep the conversation going.

Excited to be at the beautiful Omni Bedford Springs Resort for the PAELA Winter Conference, where every attendee is getting a copy of Navigating Loss! Tomorrow, I’ll be busting through some of the biggest grief myths and offering practical, thanatology-based alternatives.

Elder law attorneys are on the front lines of grief and end-of-life planning—not just for their clients, but in their own lives too. I can’t wait to share insights on how they can support others and themselves through life’s inevitable losses.

If you’re here, come say hi and let’s talk about real, compassionate ways to navigate grief.

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📘 Tuesday is the Big Day! Navigating Loss Launches on November 12! 🎉

I’m so excited to share that Navigating Loss will be available, Tuesday, November 12! This book is for anyone facing life’s unseen challenges, whether it’s navigating relationship changes, caregiving, addiction recovery, infertility, career transitions, or other life shifts.

Navigating Loss offers practical exercises and mindfulness tools to help you (or your clients!) find strength and peace during these transitions.

I'm hosting a special launch event with live readings, a guided mindfulness exercise, a Q&A, and even a 3 book set giveaway!

🗓 When: November 12
⏰ Time: 6 PM ET
👉 RSVP and Pre-Order Here https://heatherstang.com/navigating-loss/

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you all. 💙 ://heatherstang.com/navigating-loss/