Meet Heather Stang, MA, C-IAYT
Training grief professionals to bring mindfulness, compassion, and confidence to grief support
Heather Stang, MA, C-IAYT, is a thanatologist and Certified Yoga Therapist whose work brings together grief theory, mindfulness, self-compassion, yoga therapy, and expressive practices.
She is the recipient of the Association for Death Education and Counseling’s 2025 Clinical Practice Award, which recognizes her contributions to grief care and thanatology. Heather created the 8-Step Mindfulness & Grief System, an evidence-informed framework for helping people live with loss. Through the Mindfulness & Grief Coach Certification, she trains grief professionals to adapt the system for individual and group support.
She is the author of Living With Grief, From Grief to Peace, and Navigating Loss, has contributed chapters to numerous textbooks and professional publications, and hosts the Mindfulness & Grief Podcast.
Heather serves as Conference Vice Chair for the Association for Death Education and Counseling, on the Board of Directors for Frederick Health Hospice, and on the Advisory Board for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Through her writing, teaching, professional training, and podcast, Heather helps grieving people and the professionals who support them approach loss with greater understanding, practical skills, and compassion.
Heather at a Glance
- Master’s degree in thanatology from Hood College
- Recipient of the 2025 ADEC Clinical Practice Award
- Creator of the 8-Step Mindfulness & Grief System
- Founder and lead trainer of the Mindfulness & Grief Coach Certification
- Founder of the Mindfulness & Grief Institute
- Founder of the Frederick Meditation Center
- Conference Vice-Chair for the Association for Death Education and Counseling
- Member of the Frederick Health Hospice Board of Directors
- Member of the TAPS Advisory Board
- Certified Yoga Therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists
- Author of Living With Grief, From Grief to Peace, and Navigating Loss
- Contributor to numerous textbooks and professional publications
- Keynote Speaker and Trainer
- Host of the Mindfulness & Grief Podcast
How This Work Found Me
My work began with grief long before I studied it professionally.
By the time I was seven, both of my uncles had died. My mother’s brother died by suicide. My father’s brother, who had a developmental disability, died in his early twenties when I was about two.
Both of my parents had lost their only sibling. All four of my grandparents had lost a child. Before I had the language to understand what was happening, I was growing up in a family deeply affected by grief.
Years later, while running a web development company and struggling with a stress-related illness, I discovered yoga and mindfulness. The practices helped me reconnect with my body and changed the direction of my life.
I went on to serve as a suicide and crisis hotline call specialist in honor of my uncle. After Hurricane Katrina, I volunteered as a trainer and call specialist. I also worked on a National Institute of Mental Health-funded research project involving the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
These experiences deepened my commitment to understanding grief, trauma, and compassionate support. They eventually led me to earn a master’s degree in thanatology from Hood College.
My training in yoga therapy gave me another way to understand grief. Through somatic practice, I experienced how loss can live in the body, not only in our thoughts or emotions.
That understanding continues to shape my work today.
My Approach to Grief
Grief affects more than the way we feel. It can influence the body, thoughts, identity, relationships, beliefs, sense of safety, and connection to meaning.
My approach integrates current grief theory with mindfulness, self-compassion, yoga therapy, and expressive practices. These tools can help people notice what they are experiencing, respond to themselves with greater care, and make room for grief without trying to force it away.
I created the 8-Step Mindfulness & Grief System to make grief support more structured, practical, and human.
The eight steps offer a flexible framework for:
- Calming the body and nervous system
- Meeting difficult thoughts and emotions with awareness
- Practicing self-compassion
- Making space for grief through movement and expression
- Strengthening supportive connections
- Maintaining an ongoing bond with the person who died
- Exploring meaning without minimizing the loss
- Reengaging with life at an individual pace
The system is not a formula for getting over grief. It offers a way to live with loss more honestly and care for yourself more skillfully.
Grief Is Not Limited to Bereavement
Many people associate grief only with death. Loss can also arise from experiences that are less visible or publicly recognized.
My work includes death-related loss as well as non-death, ambiguous, and disenfranchised grief. This can include:
- Divorce or the end of a relationship
- Estrangement
- Betrayal
- Serious or chronic illness
- Caregiving
- Changes in identity or ability
- Career or financial loss
- Relocation
- Major life transitions
- The loss of an expected future
These experiences shaped my book Navigating Loss and continue to inform my writing, teaching, and professional training.
No two people experience grief in the same way. Effective support must leave room for the individual, the relationship, the circumstances of the loss, and the world in which that person is grieving.
Books, Chapters, and Teaching
My books are written to make grief support more accessible, practical, and compassionate.
Living with Grief offers mindful meditations and self-care strategies for navigating loss. From Grief to Peace is a guided journal for reflection, writing, and meaning-making. Navigating Loss expands the conversation to non-death loss and the challenges of living through invisible, ambiguous, and disenfranchised grief.
I have also contributed chapters to professional texts including The Handbook of Grief Therapies and Techniques of Grief Therapy, helping bridge the worlds of scholarship, clinical practice, and lived experience.
Speaking, Training, and Professional Work
I believe grief work should be both clinically sound and deeply human. It should honor the body, the heart, the story, and the realities people are actually living with. Whether I am writing, teaching, speaking, or sitting with someone one-to-one, my goal is the same: to help relieve suffering and make space for a more compassionate relationship with loss.
I speak and teach for bereaved audiences, healthcare professionals, mindfulness communities, and grief-adjacent fields. My presentations focus on grief literacy, self-compassion, caregiving, non-death loss, embodied grief support, and sustainable ways of caring for ourselves while caring for others.
Over the years, I have presented for organizations and events including ADEC, Omega Institute, TAPS, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and many others. I also provide private sessions, group support, and training through the Mindfulness and Grief Institute.
I live in Frederick, Maryland, and serve clients and audiences locally, nationally, and internationally through virtual and in-person work
Publications
Stang, H. (in 2024). Navigating loss: Wisdom and self-care for times of grief and the challenges of life. CICO Books.
Stang, H. (2024). Living with grief: Mindful meditations and self-care strategies for navigating loss. CICO Books.
Stang, H. (2024). Journaling Through Grief & Beyond. In Coenen, C. (Ed.) Life cycles of grief: Creative interventions through a seasonal lens. Jessica Kingsley.
Stang, H. (2023). Mindfulness-based grief therapy. In Steffen, E. M., Milman, E., & Neimeyer, R.A. (Eds.) The handbook of grief therapies. Sage.
Stang, H. (2021). From grief to peace: A guided journal for navigating loss with compassion and mindfulness. CICO Books.
Stang, H. (2020). Grief, loss and the superpower of mindfulness. In J.A. Harrington & R.A. Neimyer (Eds.), Superhero grief: The transformative power of loss. New York: Routledge.
Stang, H. (2020). Complementary therapies: Intimacy in hospice care. In K.J. Doka & A.S. Tucci (Eds.), Intimacy and sexuality during illness and loss (pp. 85-97). Hospice Foundation of America.
Stang, H. (2019, Winter). Seven ways to help grieving children during the holidays. TAPS Magazine, 5-6. Stang, H. (2019, Spring). Grief and sleep: Seven ways to cope with insomnia after loss. TAPS Magazine, 21-22.
Stang, H. (2014, 2018). Mindfulness and grief: with guided meditations to calm the mind and restore the spirit. CICO Books.
Stang, H. (2017, Spring). Let it R.A.I.N. TAPS Magazine, 10-11.
Stang, H. (2016, Fall). Tending the Garden of Grief With Mindfulness Meditation. TAPS Magazine, 6-7.
Stang, H. (2015). Compassion & Lovingkindness Meditation. In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Techniques of grief therapy: Assessment and intervention (pp. 159-164). New York: Routledge.
Stang, H. (2015). The Relaxation Response. In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Techniques of grief therapy: Assessment and intervention (pp. 133-138). New York: Routledge.
Stang, H. (2015). Yoga For Grief. In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Techniques of grief therapy: Assessment and intervention (pp. 144-149). New York: Routledge.
Whittington, H. (2009). Living in the body: Using awareness of physical sensation to cope with loss. Association of Death Education & Counseling Forum, 35(4), 15.
Select Presentations
COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL
7/2023 Superhero Grief Panel on The Transformative Power of Loss| San Diego, CA
OMEGA INSTITUTE
2021-23 Weekend Retreat: Making Peace With Loss: Honoring Grief Through Mindfulness and Sacred Ceremony | Rhinebeck, NY
ASSOCIATION OF DEATH EDUCATION AND COUNSELING
3/2026 Mindfulness & Grief: Innovative Tools for Death & Non-Death Loss | Baltimore MD
7/2025 Mindfulness-Based Grief Therapy: Cultivating Resilience, Compassion, and Meaning After Loss | Webinar
4/2024 Mindfulness & Grief: Self-Care for Living With Loss | Annual Meeting, Houston TX
4/2019 The Role of Empathy & Mindfulness When Working with Trauma | Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA
4/2019 The Mindful Hospice: Caring for Our Patients, Our Families, Ourselves | Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA
4/2018 Mindfulness & Grief: Reengaging with Life After Loss | Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA
4/2017 Mindfulness & Grief: Self-Compassion as Self-Care | Annual Meeting, Portland, OR
4/2016 Mindfulness & Grief: Coping Skills for Life After Loss | Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN
5/2015 Mindfulness & Grief: Techniques for Posttraumatic Growth | Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX
4/2014 Mindfulness & Grief: The Transformative Power of Now | Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD
TAPS INSTITUTE FOR HOPE & HEALING / HOSPICE FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
2016 - 2026 National Memorial Day Survivors Seminar | Arlington, VA
3/2026 When Words Don't Come Easy | Webinar
1/2021 Mindfulness As Your Superpower | Webinar
3/2020 Meditation & Self-Care for Stressful Times | Webinar
4/2020 Meditation for Uncertain Times | Webinar
3/2020 Catching Some Zzz’s – Finding Rest When Stressed | Webinar
3/2019 Using Meditation to Help Grievers Cope with Challenging Emotions | Webinar
1/2019 Meditation for Coping with Difficult Emotions | Webinar
12/2018 Compassion Meditation for Meaning Making and Posttraumatic Growth | Webinar
11/2018 Relaxation Meditation to Ease the Anxiety, Stress and Tension of Grief | Webinar
10/2018 Handle with Care: Supporting Your Grieving Body, Mind & Spirit | Day-long Workshop, Arlington, VA
NATIONAL HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE CARE ORGANIZATION
8/2018 Mind Full or Mindful? Utilizing Mindfulness Techniques to Support Staff, Patients & Bereaved Clients | Integrative &
Rehabilitation Therapies NCHPP Webinar
4/2018 Mindfulness & Leadership Excellence| Management & Leadership Conference, Washington, DC
11/2016 Self-Compassion: Managing Personal Loss in a Professional World | Intensives, Hollywood, FL
5/2016 Mindfulness & Leadership Excellence | Management & Leadership Conference, National Harbor, MD
NATIONAL FALLEN FIREFIGHTER FOUNDATION
5/2018 Mindfulness & Compassion as Self-Care for Grief | Blue Ash, OH
5/2016 Vision Board Workshop for Life After Loss for Young Adults | Warrenton, VA
5/2016 Vision Board Workshop for Life After Loss | Portland, OR
5/2014 Compassion & Forgiveness, Conscious Relaxation, Meditation, Journaling & Posttraumatic Growth | St. Louis, IL
5/2010 Relax and Renew Toolkit, Compassion and Mindful Grief Workshop | Chicago, IL