Holly's end-of-life doula and grief work led to the creation of Healing Heart to Heart, a private death doula and grief specialist practice in which she served for several years. After the onset of COVID was compounded by the death of loved ones and her husband's diagnosis with Alzheimer’s, she began to see the need for widespread grief and end-of-life literacy and care. This has inspired the creation of the nonprofit Center for the Heart and the publication of her story in the latest volume of Transforming Pain into Purpose.
Nine years into this new chapter, Holly became aware of repressed trauma. Philanthropy was her way to stay grounded and move through the journey of depression, grief and beyond, in order to heal.
During this period, she suffered a brain aneurysm. Holly developed a profound connection to the art of dying and end-of-life care, propelling her to focus volunteer efforts on death, dying and grief work, primarily via Atlantic Healthcare Hospice and The Carol G. Sienna Cancer Center at Morristown Medical Center. She provided care for patients undergoing chemotherapy and other terminal illness care.
This inspired a secondary career as an End-of-Life Doula. After spending many years concentrating on the quality of life for both the terminally ill, seniors and the grief community, she made it her personal mission to see that those facing these challenges were supported with the utmost respect, openness and understanding. To this end, she founded Healing Heart to Heart, where she practiced compassionate care of individuals and their families as they approached transition, and helped those dealing with manifestations of grief access its full potential as a transformative experience.
Holly's own grief eventually became debilitating. It had also emerged as the single biggest factor in most of her end-of-life work, leading her to become a Grief Specialist. In addition to offering Grief Services at Healing Heart to Heart, she co-founded the initiative Taming Our Grief Ghosts. In these small-group grief workshops, the co-facilitators continue to tap into a variety a modalities and related topics to empower participants to recognize and move through loss and grief in their own lives.
Most recently, Holly has become a certified Advanced Grief Recovery Method Specialist™, enabling her to offer evidenced-based support in grief recovery via a researched and proven modality that guides clients on a profound journey of self-exploration and completion. Through this training, she is qualified to work one-on-one and in groups, online and in-person, with adults and caregivers to children experiencing loss. Holly personally has achieved completion via the Grief Recovery Method® and continues to apply it, working through other relationships in her life.
As she walks together with her husband in his illness, the passions that drive her are supporting research and care for the Alzheimer's community and other terminal diagnoses, as well as elevating grief and end-of-life experiences worldwide. She cherishes every moment with her husband, two children and grandchild, her extended family, and two beloved therapy dogs, Athena and Sarge. Holly tries daily to tap into the wonder all around - in nature and other beings. She's ecstatic whenever animals, golf, gardening, yoga, meditation, horseback riding, traveling to sacred places, walking and boundless learning are involved.
https://centerfortheheart.com/
