GRIEF TRAUMA SUPPORT: Online and Somatic
If you are grieving or traumatised, you are in the right place, and you do not have to navigate this alone. This space offers online grief support and free trauma resources for individuals, couples, and families living with loss and the impact of trauma, grounded in somatic, relationship-focused approaches. Access free trauma resources including counseling, coaching, support groups, and healing tools whenever you need them.
If you are here to support someone you care about, visit ‘Supporting Someone Dealing With Loss or Trauma’.
Somatic Grief Support & Trauma-informed Coaching
Our approach combines somatic grief support with trauma-informed coaching. We recognise that grief and trauma are held in your body, not just your mind. That’s why every resource and service is designed to help you regulate your nervous system and reconnect with safety and presence.
SUPPORTING YOURSELF
Quick Start Guide (Choose Your Path):
Professional Support
Based near Zurich, Switzerland, Nathalie offers grief counselling both in-person and online. Whether you’re local or seeking online grief counselling, schedule a consultation and find out if we could work together.
When is the right time to get professional support?
It is a very common question grievers and those who’ve experienced trauma ask themselves.
There is no right or wrong time to seek help, nor is there ever too soon or too late to do so.
You have recognised the need for help and that you are ready to find out who could support you best.
Support Emails
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you like to read valuable information.
Nathalie is sending out supportive emails in the form of a semi-regular newsletter.
This touching feedback was received from one of the newsletter readers:
“This email has really resonated with me. I have gone back and reread it a dozen times. Thank you for what you do – even when I thought nothing helps, this helped.“
Lin
Podcast
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you love listening to audible information.
How to Deal With Grief and Trauma is exactly what the title describes: an exploration of how we all cope with the losses and traumas that we face in life.
The podcast is an independently run, privately funded, produced, and edited podcast. If you would like to support the grief podcast: How to Deal With Grief and Trauma, please support it with just $3 per month. 🙏🏻
Mini Ezine
for Navigating Grief, Loss, and Trauma
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you need something short and printable, you can return to it in early grief.
Nathalie has created several small booklets which you can download for free. These printable booklets (mini zines) offer gentle practices to anchor you when grief feels overwhelming.
Inside, you’ll find grounding tools, breathwork exercises, and somatic prompts to help you reconnect with your body and the present moment. A small companion for big waves.
- They can be used individually, shared in therapy, or incorporated into a personal ritual as a source of encouragement, introspection, and hope.
- The booklets are small in size, ready to fit into your purse (7.5 x 10.5 cm).
- There are three different mini ezines:
- Navigating Early Grief: 6 Gentle Steps to Navigate Early Grief
- Remembering Loved Ones: This is What I Want to Remember
- Support After Trauma: 6 Challenges to Deal With in the Aftermath of Trauma
May We All Heal and Affirmation and Reflection Cards
Creative Healing Cards
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you need something short and printable, you can return to it at any moment, dealing with grief or trauma.
Nathalie has created two sets of cards to support dealing with grief and trauma.
- May We All Heal: Creative Healing Cards
- Affirmation and Reflection Cards
Both of those sets of printable cards are thoughtfully designed to support individuals processing grief, loss, and trauma. These cards offer a creative and gentle approach to the healing process, inviting reflection, expression, and connection to find moments of peace amidst difficult times.
Whether used individually, shared in therapy, or as part of a personal ritual, these cards are a source of encouragement, introspection, and hope.
Peer Support
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you want to meet other people who have experienced what you currently are.
Peer support is a meaningful way to connect with other individuals who understand what you are going through. You can find various groups on Facebook.
If you’re a bereaved parent, we invite you to join our private May We All Heal peer support group on Facebook, a community of bereaved parents and family members who have lost a child. Here we support one another through activities and conversations about various topics. Join the May We All Heal peer support group here.
FAQ for Those Grieving and Traumatised
These are some of the most common questions grievers and traumatised people ask.
Is what I’m feeling normal?
Grief and trauma can show up as numbness, tears, anger, guilt, relief, confusion, or feeling nothing at all, sometimes all in the same day.
All of these are common responses to something overwhelming, and the goal is not to “fix” your feelings but to help your nervous system find a bit more steadiness and support around them.
How long will my grief last?
Grief has no set timeline; it tends to ebb and flow over months and years rather than simply “ending”.
Over time, with the right support and practices, many people notice that the pain becomes more integrated and less overwhelming, and they have more moments of connection, meaning, and even joy alongside their grief.
When is the right time to get professional support?
There is no “too early” to seek support when you are grieving or dealing with trauma; the right time is whenever your own strategies are no longer enough, or you feel stuck and alone with what you are carrying.
You might notice ongoing anxiety, numbness, sleep issues, or repeating patterns in relationships that do not shift on their own, which can be signs your nervous system needs extra, specialised help to regulate and integrate what has happened.
What’s the difference between counselling, coaching, groups, and self‑paced tools?
– Counselling and therapy focus more on processing grief and trauma, working gently with your nervous system, past experiences, and triggers in a safe, contained space.
– Coaching is often more present‑ and future‑oriented, helping you build practices, skills, and structures that support your daily life.
– Groups and circles offer community and shared understanding.
– Self‑paced tools let you move at your own rhythm when you are not ready or able to meet live.
Can I access support if I’m outside Switzerland? Is online support as effective?
Yes, my support is available online, and many people work with grief and trauma practitioners from different countries through video sessions, courses, and digital resources.
Online support can be deeply effective when you feel safe with the practitioner, have a quiet, private space, and use somatic, relationship‑focused tools that translate well through the screen to help regulate your nervous system.
Online Support – Helpful Organisations
Below you find a collection of helpful organisations with which Nathalie has worked or collaborated.
The Grieving Parents Support Network (GPSNetwork) is a platform for you and other bereaved parents and those wanting to support them.
As part of the vision for support and a better understanding of the grieving process of the bereaved, especially bereaved parents, I’ve created the Grieving Parents Support Network as a way for bereaved parents to find the support they need.
The GPSNetwork is a hub where bereaved parents and their supporters can come, read, feel understood, rest, share, get information, get resources, learn, process grief, and find other bereaved parents to connect to.
The Grief Recovery Method is a highly effective program recognising that grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss. It has helped many tens of thousands of people around the world.
They have generously offered the following ebooks as a free download: Guide to Loss – 61 tips on the experience of grief and how to help people through it, and Debunking the 5 Stages of Grief
The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family. US-based, international online groups.
www.compassionatefriends.org
The Compassionate Friends also runs a number of private Facebook groups.
Sweet Grace Ministries seeks to offer support, hope, and empathy to families enduring stillbirth, infant death, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy. Providing resources, support groups, photography, gowns, events, and more to families in PA and throughout the United States.
As part of our mission to support grieving parents, we offer our grief resource books at a reduced price to Sweet Grace Ministries to add to their comfort baskets. For more information, click here.
sweetgraceministries.com
Music
🆓 ✔️ Ideal when you love the power of music to regulate yourself.
There is no doubt: Music is mood-altering. You can use music to make you feel better, or some music will remind you and pull you back into dark places. Decide what it is you need and want.
Music as a Tool for Nervous System Regulation
Support Books for Grief and Trauma
Below you find just a few of Nathalie’s favourite support books.
You can find the complete Grief & Trauma Reading List here, listing books in additional categories such as:
- Trauma & Healing – science-based background knowledge
- Grieving Mother – for mothers who have lost a baby or child
- Loss of Mother – for those who have lost their mother
- Grieving Father – for fathers who have lost a baby or child
- Loss of Father – for those who have lost their father
- Children’s Books – for children dealing with G&T
- Spiritual, Religious, Inspirational
- Memoirs
Click the + symbol to find suggested books in the area you are most interested in.
Grieving Parents: Surviving Loss as a Couple by Nathalie Himmelrich
Surviving My First Year of Child Loss: Personal Stories from Grieving Parents by Nathalie Himmelrich
Navigating the Unknown: An Immediate Guide When Experiencing the Loss of Your Baby by Amie Lands
For those wanting to understand grief in the body and mind.
The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Frances O’Connor
It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine
The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing – A Psychology Guide to Physical Health and Coping by Mary-Frances O’Connor
Ideal when you are the creative type who prefers to use their hands rather than talk about it.
May We All Heal: Playbook For Creative Healing After Loss by Nathalie Himmelrich