Dr. Julie Shaw
Dr. Julie Shaw (she/her) is a certified grief educator, grief coach, speaker and experienced griever. Dr. Shaw is committed to building an inclusive community of grievers who are curious, ready to explore, and find ways they can integrate grief into their lives. She is the founder of Hello I‘m Grieving, a community where grievers can find support and motivation through innovative, thought-provoking events. As a former professional basketball player and collegiate coach, Dr. Shaw adds to her grief work a specialty in coaching high performers on their grief journey to help them reimagine success as they navigate their grief. Dr. Shaw has her doctorate in Leadership and is the co-founder of Lead Different Consulting where she works with global leaders on topics of leadership development, DEI, and grief education. Dr. Shaw has spoken on panels alongside David Kessler, contributed to the Empathy.com Cost of Dying Report, and her story is featured in the grief documentary Meet Me Where I Am. Dr. Shaw is also the host of the Hello I’m Grieving podcast.
Grief Empowerment: Creating Your Grief Manifesto
Feeling ready to approach your grief journey with more intention and creativity? Join Dr. Julie Shaw, Founder of Hello I’m Grieving as she facilitates Grief Empowerment: Creating Your Grief Manifesto is a 60-90 minute workshop designed to help you do just that. This creative and reflective process will empower you to express your emotions, set meaningful intentions, and shape how you want to show up for yourself and others. You’ll leave with a powerful one-page grief manifesto that you can turn to for strength, grounding, and guidance because grief is a long road. Let's come together, reflect, and create in a space that honors where you are and where you're going.
What was the catalyst for you stepping into this work? How did you end up here, at this moment, doing what you do?
The catalyst for me doing my work has always been experiencing the death of my sister in February 2020. My need to not honor her life, not become "stuck" in my own grief, and to keep living a full life became very important to me. Her death opened up a whole new world and perspective that alchemized me in a way that I never imagined. Then my connecting with other grievers and investing my time into educating myself I found a passion for grief. I've always had a call to help others and have found that finding new ways to educate and provide spaces for people to connect with their grief and with others has given me an additional purpose in life.
What do you hope people get from working with you or interacting with your services?
I truly hope that people simply get what they need. Everyone is looking for something to help them navigate grief and understand who they are becoming. Grief truly transforms us and I believe it is up to us to allow it to change us in the best ways possible. I hope people take away more knowledge that can validate their experiences and give language to what they are experiencing so they can better communicate to those in their lives. I also hope that people take away the community. That they know that they are not alone in this and that we heal through community by having our grief witnessed by others. People who I interact with and who I serve I want them to feel seen and help them feel empowered to live the life that they have reimagined.
What do you wish was different about the way we are supported when dying, grieving, and navigating end-of-life in general? What would you change?
This is a huge question! Basically everything! People need more education from the rights, laws, and policies we have about dying. Then also education on simply how we can die a beautiful death with ritual and the choices that we have about what to do with our bodies after we die. I think that people don't realize the amount of choices we have and that we can truly cultivate an experience for us and the people supporting us as we transition. I would love for the world to talk about these choices like we talk about any other big life celebration because this is perhaps the biggest celebration that can capture a life lived. Think about births of children, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. The amount of planning, discussion, visualization that we put into these. Why don't we do this for our death? We need more stewards to help us like financial planners, event planners, death doulas, medical professionals, ritual practitioners, etc. that can be included in many discussions way before death is knocking on our door. We need to normalize telling loved ones what we want and daydreaming about how we die.
What would you say to someone who is nervous about attending events about death or grief?
I am a former athlete and coach so immediately " just do it" popped in my head! Using my coach talk, true growth happens outside of our comfort zone. Nervous is a good thing and you can use this to also build up your fear muscle. Approach these events with a genuine curiosity and trust me you will surprise yourself in how much you can add to the conversation. And it's also ok if you simply sit and listen. We tend to be fearful, anxious or nervous about things we don't understand or know much about. This is completely normal and I know from my experience it has unlocked parts of me that were waiting for me so that I could continue to grow as a human. I will also say that events about grief and death aren't always what you think they are. Many people tend to think that it is a very dark and sad environment. When speaking from experience hosting my own events and attending others that they can be filled with so much light, laughter, and yes fun! These are also the spaces where you make the most authentic connections and have the realest conversations which is so much better that showing up to an event where you feel like you have to be someone else or can't be your true self. These events are the most welcoming and inspiring spaces you can enter.
If someone meets you at the resource fair - what's a question you invite them to ask you?
I would invite them to ask me about my sister and all the other types of grief I have experienced. I love this question when we ask people about their person because many times we feel like we can't bring them up or the fact that people stop asking you about them. It also allows people to openly share and feel supported, validated, and witnessed. What I have seen too, is that it lights people up as a happy surprise. So give it a try and I am sure you and the other person's soul will heal a tiny bit more!
