Gentle and compassionate grief support
To help make sense of the complexities of deep loss.
“The goal of grief healing isn’t to be rid of the pain but rather, to integrate it as a part of who we become after loss.”
— Marie Goudreau
About me.
Marie, is a certified death doula & grief coach who specializes in walking alongside those having suffered a profound loss.
She is the founder of Empowered Through Grief, a trauma-informed coaching practice that offers grief support, both online & in person in the Greater Montreal area. Her work is meant to help you in cultivating hope and post-traumatic growth after loss.
Her approach is based on the assumption that you are the expert of your own grief and her work focuses on slow integration to help you develop a deeper connection to who you’re becoming & to support you in finding meaning in life after loss.
Marie’s practice offers multiple group spaces where healing & growth is fostered in connection with other grieving hearts as well as individual grief support.
Certifications & Trainings
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End-of-life Specialist (death doula)
Trained and certified by the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Toronto, Canada.
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Transformational Life Coaching training
Completed two trainings with the Priority Academy: strategic life coaching & NLP practitioner certifications.
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Continuing education & training
Trainings in trauma informed space holding for individuals and groups.
Contact Us
(Services in English & French)
P.O. Box 52006, Laval, CP, Fabreville, Qc, H7P 5S1
Hours
Monday–Friday
9am–5pm EST
Email:
empoweredthroughlife@gmail.com
Accompagnement du deuil en Français:
info@soutiendeuil.com
Looking for support specific to grief? Start here.
1:1 Grief Support
Are you struggling to find the right kind of support in grief?
Living with a deep loss can impact all facets of your life. Long-term support can help you explore & make sense of the complexities of your loss while slowly assist you in re-engaging with life in a meaningful way.
In grief, we need to tell our story and we need unconditional support as we attempt to put the pieces of our shattered heart (and life) back together in a new way. We need people and spaces that allow us to come just as we are. We might be shattered one day and plead for our person to come back and hopeful the next day, emboldened to carry our lives forward.
The complex nature of grief demands a particular kind of gentle and compassionate support.
I specialize in creating brave spaces for women to tell the truth about what it is really like to live with loss. Here, you’ll explore all of the manifestations of your grief and process the emotions and beliefs that come with loss without judgement, expectations or platitudes. I guide women with compassion as they redefine their identity, process difficult emotions and find meaning in their lives again.
Sisterhood in Grief (for early grievers)
Although grief is a universal experience, when it happens to you, it is really lonely.
Feeling isolated, alone, misunderstood and unseen in their grief is something that most grievers struggle with.
Our friends and family may try to support us but they fall short and unintentionally hurt us because they lack the understanding that you only get from having to live with a profound loss.
That’s where the idea for Sisterhood in Grief came from.
There is so much healing that occurs from having a space for truth telling about what it’s really like to live with loss. Being held and witnessed by a community of women that truly “gets it” is a powerful experience.
Sisterhood in Grief is an intimate group experience for women who are looking for a support group AND coaching experience that will support them in the early days of partner loss.
It’s 12 weeks of gentle grief coaching led by me which will give you a better understanding of the grieving process and of the complexities specific to partner loss. Together, we slowly begin to cultivate hope and to find a path forward towards rebuilding.
It is both a community AND a grief coaching experience that will change how you relate to your grief.
Sign up now for the next cohort.
The program runs from November 2024 to January 2025.
Integrative GROWTH
A 4 month group program co-facilitated with Amelia Bradaric (Adventuring Loss) for those in the rebuilding phase of widowhood
Integrative Growth is a 4 month long space that will gently guide you in finding the ground from which to build forward.
The loss of a life partner is a transformative experience.
Most likely, this experience has impacted your sense of identity, your perspective on life and the way you navigate the world.
In the space between what was and what will be, Integrative Growth invites you to cultivate a deeper understanding of who you are becoming.
We will help facilitate a rebuilding journey that is intentional and rooted in your integrity.
Let’s move towards what’s next in a way that honours your humanness and feels sustainable.
Enrolment opens Spring 2024.
The program runs from September 2024 to January 2025.
The Membership
Be held, for 12 months, in a space that is specific to partner loss, meant to help you understand and cope with the manifestations of grief & trauma in your life in the after.
The grief landscape of partner loss is vast and this space will allow you the time to begin integrating & processing this major loss.
Together, we explore trauma recovery, integration & rebuilding in the midst of widowhood.
This program is designed for those who wish to have long-term group support that is also flexible. This space is co-facilitated by Marie and other guest facilitators which offers a diversity of expertise to the group throughout the year.
The next cohort starts February 2025 for 12 months.
Enrolment opens in the Fall of 2024.
A year-long space for education and connection after partner loss.
Memories, Meaning, Legacy:
A 10 week self-paced writing course to safeguard your memories after the loss of a partner.
In my work with widows, I have seen time and time again, the suffering and anxiety that comes from the fear of forgetting. The passing of time creates a fog around our memories and can make details, moments and events less vivid over time.
After the loss of a partner, we become the sole memory keepers of a life that’s now bound to the past. Some memories are big and defining and have photos which can help us remember them better. But some memories exists only between two people. Those quiet intimate moments that are like a secret language between partners are precious and deeply meaningful and I want to help you immortalize them.
I have created this offering to help you remember and record some of your most precious memories. Find out more about the course now.
Podcast Interviews
Stay in touch.
Leave your email to be added to my email list!
Because I don’t own platforms like IG or FB where I connect so meaningfully with all of you, there is always a chance that we lose touch should my account be de-activated or taken down.
Being connected through email ensures that we can stay in touch no matter what happens on the internets!
P.S. I rarely send out emails but when I do, they’re meaningful! No spam ever.
empoweredthroughlife@gmail.com
What Clients Are Saying
“What I most want to express is gratitude for all that I have learned through this process. I have gratitude for you, your commitment to my healing, and for holding a safe space for me to have genuine, truthful conversations about the grief of not only watching my beloved die, but a part of myself as well. You have continuously held the belief for me that he will never leave me even in my moments of sadness and fear. The tools presented have given me the opportunity to delve into what are the roots of my anxiety and how I actively avoid it. With the awareness, as tough as it may be, comes healing. No longer do I awake crying because I awoke. I do not feel the desperation I once did.
The work is just that—it is a commitment to practice, to put forth the effort, to embrace change despite the discomfort that may come. I now find there are areas of my life that I find joy and peace. I am finding what makes me authentic and relevant for who I am now, because the loss of the love of my life has irrevocably changed and molded me into another being. Thank you”,
— Mary B.
“Thank you for helping me see that I do have a true vision of myself through the eyes of my brother. And that it's so important I take time to tap into his vision of me, because it helps me align with my true self while shedding the stories that have been projected onto me throughout my whole life, due to external wounding that was not my own. I am thankful for the safe space you have provided through this work. It is getting me more in touch with myself every day”.
— Anita F.
“I started working with M-C two years into my grief journey. I had read all the books, done all the therapy, but my life still didn’t feel like “me," which left me unhappy and unsatisfied with most aspects of my life.
I joined M-C’s Empowered Through Grief program, hoping to gain something new that I had not found elsewhere. And I did! She has helped me first to realize that I have been living in victim mode for two years without even noticing it, and second, to help me consciously step out of that mindset and into a life of gratitude.
This has been transformational for me, and the program overall has helped me look at my healing journey through a new lens. I am the creator of my life, and creating a life that aligns with this new “me” post-loss is something that has brought me total clarity and purpose. All the opposition and uncertainty has disappeared, and I owe much of it to the work I did with M-C”.
— Jennifer C.
“Just want to say thank you Marie. You are such a skilled facilitator. The space, shaped by your expertise, experience and emotional intelligence is the perfect forum for sharing. The world is a better place because of your work.”
— Susie W. on her experience in Sisterhood in Grief (cohort 1)
“Thank you Marie-Claude for creating such a beautiful and sacred space. I have learned so much. You are such a bright and beautiful guiding light for us on this earthly plane and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing so openly your love and loss of A, for doing the hard work of processing all of the strategies and knowledge you have gathered surrounding grief and so lovingly share this information with other women. Your hard work, empathy, kindness and care make the grief path just a wee bit easier to navigate. Your work is a calling”.
— Maureen on her experience in Sisterhood in Grief (2nd cohort)