Hi, I’m Melissa.

I’m a grieving mother, a Master Grief Coach, and the host of The Leftover Pieces® Podcast.

After losing my 21-year-old son, Alex, to suicide in 2016, my life was forever divided into before and after. Like so many mothers, I found myself navigating grief, guilt, identity loss, and the impossible question of how to keep living.

Over the years, I’ve walked this road not only for myself, but alongside hundreds of grieving mothers through conversations, retreats, writing, community, and coaching.

Many of the mothers who eventually find their way to this work are several years beyond the loss itself, quietly wondering how life is supposed to move forward from here.

Through The Leftover Pieces®, I now offer grief coaching designed specifically for mothers living after the loss of a child to suicide—with different ways to step into the work depending on where you are, what kind of support you’re looking for, and how deeply you’re ready to engage.

Because this work is not about “moving on.”

Mothers don’t move on from their children.

But we can learn how to live forward while carrying our love—and our grief—with us.

What This Work Is About

Grief does not follow a timeline—but it does evolve.

In the early years after loss, many mothers feel like they are simply trying to survive each day. As time passes, different questions often begin to emerge:

Who am I now? How do I trust myself again? How do I live forward while carrying this grief? What does the rest of my life look like?

This work creates a gentle, intentional space to explore those questions—not by trying to fix your grief or move you past it, but by helping you understand where you are now and what may be asking for your attention.

Depending on where you are in your journey, our work may include:

untangling guilt and self-blame
rebuilding trust in yourself and your life
reconnecting with who you are now—and who you are becoming
learning how to carry grief while living forward
exploring meaning, purpose, connection, and moments of peace

You will never be “over” the loss of your child.

But you can learn to live alongside the grief—with your child’s love still woven into your life.

And because no two mothers need exactly the same kind of support, there are now several ways to step into this work—depending on where you are, how deeply you want to engage, and the kind of coaching container that feels right for you.

Ways to Work With Me

There is no single right way to step into coaching.

Some mothers want the privacy and individualized attention of working one-on-one. Others find something powerful in doing this work alongside a small group of women who understand this kind of loss. And sometimes, after completing a coaching journey, what you need most is a place to reconnect, regroup, and keep moving forward.

I now offer several ways to meet you there.

Private 1:1 Coaching

The most personal and individualized way to experience this work.

Together, we move through either Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ in a private 12-week coaching container, with weekly 75-minute sessions, guided reflection, and support tailored specifically to you and your story.

Best for: the mother who wants dedicated space, deeper individual exploration, and the highest level of personal support.

Small Group Coaching

Experience Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ alongside a small group of grieving mothers doing the same intentional work.

These 12-week cohorts meet weekly and are intentionally kept small—6 to 8 women—so there is room for meaningful conversation, reflection, connection, and coaching.

Cohorts are formed as interest builds rather than on a fixed launch schedule.

Best for: the mother who wants structured coaching at a more accessible investment and values learning and growing in community.

Continuing & Alumni Coaching

Finishing a 12-week journey does not always mean you are finished needing a place to do the work.

For mothers who have completed Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™, I offer ways to return for focused individual coaching or continue with ongoing accountability and deeper conversation through the Living Forward Coaching Circle.

Best for: former coaching clients who want to revisit something specific, stay connected to the work, or continue being intentionally supported as life and grief evolve.

Private 1:1 Coaching

Deeply personal support, built around you.

Private coaching offers the most individualized way to experience this work. Over 12 weeks, we meet one-on-one each week, creating space for your story, your grief, your questions, and what is unfolding in your life right now.

You’ll move through one of two coaching journeys, based on where you are and what you most need from this season of your grief.

Destination: Me™

Releasing Guilt & Restoring Self-Trust

Created for mothers who are still navigating the heavier terrain of grief and are ready to begin untangling guilt, rebuilding trust in themselves, and finding steadier emotional footing.

Together, we explore the layers of traumatic loss, the questions and self-blame that can follow suicide loss, and what it means to begin living forward without leaving your child behind.

Soul Tides™

Grounded in grief, led by spirit — become who your soul remembers.

Created for mothers further along in grief who have survived the early storm and are beginning to ask deeper questions about identity, meaning, purpose, connection, and who they are becoming.

This work makes room for grief while exploring the life that is continuing to unfold around—and within—you.

Your 12-Week Private Coaching Journey Includes

12 weekly 75-minute private Zoom coaching sessions
Your Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ workbook, included with enrollment
Guided reflection and practices between sessions
Between-session support within the coaching container
Coaching tailored to your individual story, needs, and pace

Investment

Pay in full: $2,000
Payment plan: 3 monthly payments of $750

Please note: A $250 non-refundable reservation deposit is included in your program investment and secures your coaching start date. If you decide not to begin coaching after reserving your space, any amount paid above the $250 deposit will be refunded. Once coaching begins, payments are non-refundable.

Because I work closely with a limited number of private clients at one time, all new 1:1 coaching begins with a simple conversation. We’ll talk about where you are, what you’re looking for, and which journey may be the best fit.

Openings happen a few times a year and are announced ahead of time in community spaces as well as via Melissa's weekly email (be sure you are on that email list -- sign up at bottom of this page)

Click the Button Below to Schedule That Conversation

Let's Have a Conversation. Reserve Your Spot / Start Date

Small Group Coaching

The same intentional coaching work, experienced in community.

Small group coaching offers another way to move through Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™—with the added connection of walking alongside other grieving mothers who are doing the work with you.

These are intentionally small coaching groups, limited to 6–8 women, creating enough space for individual reflection, meaningful conversation, shared insight, and real coaching each week.

You’ll choose the journey that best meets you where you are.

Destination: Me™

Releasing Guilt & Restoring Self-Trust

For mothers navigating the heavier terrain of grief who are ready to begin untangling guilt and self-blame, rebuilding trust in themselves, and finding steadier footing as they learn to live forward.

Soul Tides™

Grounded in grief, led by spirit — become who your soul remembers.

For mothers further along in grief who are ready to explore identity, meaning, purpose, connection, and who they are becoming while continuing to carry both their grief and their love.

Your 12-Week Small Group Coaching Journey Includes

12 weekly 75-minute live Zoom coaching sessions
A small cohort of 6–8 grieving mothers
Guided reflection, journaling, and coaching exercises
Space for both group conversation and individual coaching
The full Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ coaching framework
Your corresponding workbook, required and purchased separately by you before group (link will be provided)

Investment

Pay in full: $900
Payment plan: 3 monthly payments of $350

Please note: A $100 non-refundable seat reservation is included in your program investment and holds your place in the cohort. If you decide not to participate before the group begins, any amount paid above the $100 reservation will be refunded. Once the cohort begins, payments are non-refundable.

Small group cohorts are not tied to a fixed launch calendar. I keep an interest list for both Destination: Me™ and Soul Tides™, and a new cohort is formed when 6–8 women are ready to begin the same journey.

If this feels like the kind of support you’re looking for, click the button below to add your name to the interest list. There is no commitment simply for expressing interest.

Join the Small Group Interest List. No Obligation Now.

Continuing & Alumni Coaching

Sometimes you don’t need to start over—you just need a meaningful way to keep going.

Completing Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ does not mean the work—or your need for connection, reflection, and support—suddenly ends.

For women who have completed one of my 12-week coaching journeys, there are two ways to continue working together.

Living Forward Coaching Circle

Ongoing coaching, reflection, connection, and accountability after your 12-week journey.

Maybe you don’t need another program.

Maybe you simply don’t want to stop doing the work.

The Living Forward Coaching Circle is an ongoing small-group coaching space created exclusively for women who have completed Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™.

There is no new curriculum to complete. Instead, we work with what is happening in your life now—through coaching, meaningful conversation, guided reflection, journaling or intuitive writing, revisiting previous work, and intentions for the weeks ahead.

Your Living Forward Circle Includes

Two 90-minute live Zoom coaching sessions each month
A small, intentionally limited group of former coaching clients
Continued reflection and accountability
Coaching around what is happening in your life now
Opportunities to revisit and deepen previous Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ work
A meaningful way to continue living forward in community

Investment

Pay in full: $450 every 3 months
Save $75

Payment plan:
3 monthly payments of $175

Enrollment is offered in three-month cycles, and you are welcome to continue enrolling for additional cycles for as long as the Circle continues to serve you and space remains available.

Beginning with clients completing coaching in Fall 2026 and beyond, I will share information about the Living Forward Coaching Circle toward the end of your 12-week journey so you can decide whether continued coaching in community feels like the right next step.

If you completed coaching with me previously and are interested now, simply reach out to me personally or by email and I’ll send you the current information and availability.

Regrounding Sessions

Focused private coaching when something needs your attention.

Sometimes you don’t need ongoing coaching at all.

You may simply encounter an anniversary, relationship change, difficult decision, new season of grief, or something else that makes you think:

I could really use some time with Melissa to work through this.

Regrounding Sessions are 90-minute private coaching sessions available exclusively to former Destination: Me™ and Soul Tides™ clients.

Before we meet, I’ll ask you to share a little about what is bringing you back so we can use our time together intentionally.

Investment

One 90-minute session: $225

Three 90-minute sessions: $600
Save $75

Three-session packages may be used anytime within six months, allowing you to return when support is needed rather than following a weekly schedule.

Click the button below whenever you’re ready to schedule a Regrounding Session.

SCHEDULE A REGROUNDING SESSION USING BUTTON BELOW

Schedule a Regrounding Session Here (for Coaching Alum Only)

A Note About This Work

Grief coaching is different from therapy—and it is different from a support group.

This is an intentional, collaborative space for mothers who are ready to look at where they are now, explore what may be keeping them stuck or asking for their attention, and begin making conscious choices about how they want to live forward.

Our work may include reflection on your story, guilt and self-trust, identity, relationships, meaning, spirituality when that feels right for you, and the complicated experience of building a life that continues to hold both grief and love.

I will bring questions, tools, perspective, gentle challenge, and the experience I have gathered through my own loss, professional training, and years of working alongside grieving mothers.

You bring your story, your willingness, and your own knowing.

There is no finish line here—and no expectation that grief disappears.

The work is about learning how to carry what cannot be changed while creating room for what can still become possible.

A Weekly Check-In for Fellow Grievers

Most weeks, I send a short note — reflections from the rabbit hole, reminders you're not alone, and a few honest thoughts about learning to live forward after loss.

“Nothing heavy. Nothing overwhelming. Just a little companionship in your inbox, shared weekly with 1,000+ fellow grievers.”

Let’s take the next step together. - Click Here to Start the Conversation

**Payment, Refund & Scheduling Policy (Click "+" to Expand and Read)

Payment, Refund & Scheduling Policy

I understand that life—and grief—can be unpredictable. I will always do my best to approach scheduling changes with compassion while also honoring the time and space reserved for each coaching client.

Private 1:1 Coaching

Enrollment in Destination: Me™ or Soul Tides™ is a commitment to the full 12-week coaching journey.

A $250 non-refundable reservation deposit is included in your program investment and secures your coaching start date and space on my private coaching calendar.

If you decide not to begin coaching after your space has been reserved, any amount paid above the $250 reservation deposit will be refunded, provided your coaching journey has not yet begun.

Once your coaching journey begins, payments are non-refundable. If you choose a payment plan, you are committing to the full program investment; the payment plan is not a month-to-month coaching option.

Private sessions may be rescheduled with at least 24 hours’ notice whenever possible. Sessions canceled with less than 24 hours’ notice or missed without notice may be considered used. True emergencies will be handled with compassion and on a case-by-case basis.

If an unexpected circumstance prevents you from continuing after coaching has begun, please contact me so we can discuss your individual situation.

Small Group Coaching

Payment is not collected simply for joining the interest list. Enrollment and payment begin only after a cohort has been confirmed and you choose to participate.

A $100 non-refundable seat reservation is included in your program investment and holds your place in the cohort. If you decide not to participate before the group begins, any amount paid above the $100 reservation will be refunded.

Once a 12-week small-group cohort begins, program payments are non-refundable, and payment-plan participants remain responsible for the full program investment.

Because group sessions occur on a shared schedule, missed sessions cannot be individually rescheduled, credited, or replaced with private coaching. Recordings may be available for enrollees for current session (this will be covered at start of sessions).

Living Forward Coaching Circle

Living Forward enrollment is offered in three-month cycles. Each cycle is a three-month commitment, whether paid in full or through the monthly payment plan.

Payments are non-refundable once the cycle begins.

Because the Circle meets on a shared group schedule, missed sessions cannot be individually rescheduled, credited, or replaced with private coaching. Recordings may be available for enrollees for current session (this will be covered at start of sessions).

At the end of each three-month cycle, you may choose whether you would like to continue for another cycle, as long as space remains available. It is anticipated that many moms will stay enrolled for potentially a year or more at a time due to the mom-to-mom connections that are formed and the ongoing nature of the work, so openings may not always be available.

Regrounding Sessions

Payment for Regrounding Sessions is required before your scheduled session.

Single-session payments and three-session package payments are non-refundable. A Regrounding Session may be rescheduled with at least 24 hours’ notice whenever possible.

Sessions canceled with less than 24 hours’ notice or missed without notice may be considered used.

The three-session Regrounding Package must be paid in full before the first session. All three sessions must be used within six months of the first scheduled session.

If I Need to Reschedule

If I ever need to cancel or reschedule one of our private sessions, I will work with you to find another time, and the session will never be forfeited because of a scheduling change on my end.

“Melissa is not a licensed mental health professional or medical doctor. Information and resources shared through The Leftover Pieces® are educational in nature and are based on lived experience, coaching practice, gathered knowledge, and certificate-based training. Nothing on this website should be considered medical or mental health advice or a substitute for care from a licensed professional.”