May you find comfort, strength, and healing

as you shift from an acute state of suffering to actively processing your grief using The Grief Protocol.

Welcome

The Grief Protocol was written specifically for those in an active, acute stage of grief, although anyone with unprocessed grief will benefit from its content. This book teaches the reader how to physiologically process grief through clear, easy-to-follow steps.

Since grief triggers a “freeze/collapse” response in our bodies, we need to physically address this hardwired reaction. The somatic solutions outlined in the book are taken from a wide variety of sources: Qigong, Touch for Health, Eden Energy Medicine, Breathwork, NLP, EFT Tapping, intuitive visualization, and guided meditations. They reflect Karen’s vast knowledge and expertise in alternative healing modalities spanning three decades.

The goal of The Grief Protocol is to override our bodies’ hardwired reaction to grief, allowing us to reset our nervous system, restore a feeling of safety, and to restart the proper flow of our electromagnetic energy. It teaches how to clear any blockages in our electromagnetic energy flow, process the energy of emotions, and expand neuro pathways while strengthening mindfulness, all of which fortifies our resilience to stressors.

Ultimately, processing grief as it arises enables us to alchemize this intense emotion back to its pure form: LOVE.

Order The Grief Protocol from Balboa Press

"I'm so impressed with your book. You've certainly poured your whole heart and soul into it. It's obvious you've done your research. You've written it so it's easy for the lay person to understand and relate to. It has certainly been helpful for me. I know without a doubt many grieving souls will find solace in your words and illustrations."

-- Sharon, Reader of The Grief Protocol

About Karen

Karen is a Certified Grief Coach & Grief Educator trained by David Kessler. She moderates grief support groups in Tender Hearts, founded Shared Sorrow: A Community for Grievers, and performs recalibration bodywork sessions in her private practice as a Licensed Massage Therapist focused on trauma-informed therapeutic bodywork.

Her grief journey began in 1999 when both of her parents were diagnosed with their respective cancers within four months of one another. She lost her dad in 2000 and her mom in 2005 when Karen was eight months pregnant.

Years passed, along with more deaths, losses, and heartaches. Karen thought the growing intensity of her physical reaction from the numerous losses was normal and to be expected if one lived a life empathetically connected to others.

That all changed in 2023 when she intuitively applied somatic techniques from her vast knowledge of bodywork modalities to address her body’s physical reaction to grief.

Karen feels like it was her fate to suffer both extreme losses and intense physical reactions to grief so she could act as the conduit to bring forth The Grief Protocol and serve as a peer-support grief specialist,

Finding purpose in her pain, she also functions as a resiliency strategist, teaching others how to bounce, rather than break, through life’s challenges in her keynote addresses.

In October 2026, Karen began to create content for Grief TV Season Three on her channel "Alchemizing Grief: A Somatic Approach."

Karen resides in her hometown of Portland, Oregon where she studied at East West College of the Healing Arts from 1996-1997.

Certified Grief Coach & Educator

Peer-to-peer guidance on your grief journey

We cannot grieve alone. We need guidence by those who have already walked through the fire and survived while alchemizing their pain into transformational healing.

As a Grief Coach, it is my honor to help clients grieve well and live well after experiencing profound losses. I want to help them find their purpose in their pain.

"Shared joy is double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow"
-Swedish proverb

Upcoming Events

Share the Healing Work of The Grief Protocol

Karen brings her three decades of experience in transformative bodywork practices to support groups, classes, and speaking engagements designed to help others understand grief and how to alchemize its power to expand our humanity.

If you’d like to bring this transformative work to your community, organization, or individually, please fill out the form — we’d love to explore the possibilities together.

Feeding my artistic lens

While visiting Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France in 2024, I was awestruck by the bittersweet beauty of the displays of bereavement. These photos became the inspiration for the art contained in The Grief Protocol.