Heather Stang

4.9k Followers

Heather Stang, MA, C-IAYT, is an award-winning thanatologist, yoga therapist, and author specializing in mindfulness-based support for people grieving both death and non-death losses. She developed the 8-step Mindfulness & Grief System, which blends meditation, movement, journaling, and self-compassion with contemporary grief theory, and is featured in the Handbook of Grief Therapies textbook. Her approach is grounded in evidence and shaped by lived experience—including suicide loss, estrangement, and divorce. Heather is the author of Navigating Loss, Living With Grief (formerly Mindfulness & Grief), and From Grief to Peace. She received the 2025 Clinical Practice Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) for innovation in grief care, and holds a Master’s Degree in Thanatology from Hood College. Through her online support program and private grief counseling, Awaken, Heather provides trauma-sensitive tools for emotional regulation and meaning-making. She also trains professionals in mindfulness-informed grief care. A sought-after keynote speaker, she is known for her heartfelt presence, practical tools, and compassionate voice that helps others feel seen and supported in the wake of loss.

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Reviews

Britt Sees

Jan 12, 2026

Wonderful timing.

Jane Bytheway

Aug 26, 2025

A gentle practice for allowing emotions and coming home to yourself. Thank you 🙏🏼

Alice

Jul 2, 2025

thank you, beautiful welcoming practice 🧡🌻💛🧡🌻💛🧡🌻💛

Pam

Feb 13, 2025

Very lightly guided. Thank you

Steph

Jan 14, 2025

As a survivor of a 25 Year physical and psychologically abusive marriage, I have been working to process my trauma. It is taking years and listening to this talk brought me to tears. So often it can feel like there is something wrong with me when I try to meditate and your discussion with David reinforces that this is not true. Thank you!

Katie

Jun 4, 2024

Very nice. Plenty of silence and gentle cues. Thank you 🌟

Stephen Bau

May 10, 2024

This conversation affirmed the trauma-sensitive mindfulness work that I have been doing individually with a coach. It also highlighted the importance of community in the coregulation and collective healing process. That feels like the largest gap to fill in my personal experience. Specifically, I was considering how work became a coping mechanism for developmental trauma and emotional, social, and spiritual disconnection, but it became the source of trauma in moments of crisis where the need for care was met with a severing of all connections and financial self-sufficiency. It made me wonder if there might be a need to focus on the collective trauma being experienced in all areas of artistic, creative, and design practice as humans are being made expendable by technology and artificial intelligence and authoritarian corporate culture.

Katie

Apr 19, 2024

Very nice. Needed something lightly guided and this scan was just right. The time flew and although mind still wandered, this was still a sweet little practice. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉

Wit Lanford

Feb 28, 2024

Thx u

Anne W

May 26, 2023

This meditation, heard by Heather for the first time, made a big impact on my life. It helped to heal me, to excite me to learn, and to motivate me to practice this as a new part of my life. Thank you Heather.

About

Speaks English

Joined Insight Timer in September 2016


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