Tabitha Jayne

Tabitha Jayne is a leading expert in the field of grief and growth coaching, having first developed an interest in the topic following the sudden death of her younger brother. The founder of “Transform Grief. Live Fully. Thrive Loss” coaching and workshops, Tabitha is also the creator of “Tree of Transformation”, a five-step process that helps individuals fully let go of grief and transform loss into a lasting legacy that positively impacts both themselves and the world. Her latest book is Thriving Loss: Move beyond grief to a place of peace, passion and purpose. She is also a contributing author in Open to Hope: Inspirational stories of healing after loss and has presented on The Transformative Power of Nature in Grief and Loss at the International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society and the ADEC Annual Conference. She is also the Head Coach of Grief & Growth Coaching at the International Coach Academy. She says, “The death of my brother was the most profound experience and loss in my life. It made me realise that life is too short and challenged me to transform my own life into something that I was proud of. Despite all the pain and anguish, all the tears and hurt, my brother dying is one of the best things that happened to me. Peter motived me to learn to live life fully both as tribute to him and to gain meaning from tragedy.” Tabitha is a Certified Professional Coach from the International Coach Academy and an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. Her academic background is in Psychology with a BSc (Hons) from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh where she conducted research into “Attachment and the Type of Loss Experienced by the Bereaved in Continuing Bonds”. She is currently completing a M.S. in Applied Ecopsychology and Coaching in Grief and Growth with Project NatureConnect, The Institute of Global Education. Prior to founding ‘Transform Grief. Live Fully. Thrive Loss’ and working with clients worldwide helping them to live more and grieve less, Tabitha was the co-founder and director of Pedro Project, a non-profit organization which ran for 6 years providing information, advice and support to help bereaved young people. During this time she was a finalist in the Everywoman 2004 awards as well as Cosmopolitan´s Fun, Fearless Female 2006 Awards. She was also featured in The Sun, The Sunday Post Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Edinburgh Evening News and on local and regional radio as well as in the Channel 4 documentary for young adults entitled “Losing You” Get your free audio of the Introduction and Chapter One of Thriving Loss: Move beyond grief to a place of peace, passion and purpose at www.tabithajayne.com

Articles:

Open to  hope

Sibling Bonds

You are my brother and always will be Not even death can take that away from me. The love we share is everlasting A bond that can never be broken.   I hate saying I miss you but It´s true.  Every day. The fights, the chats, the small things Mean even more now they´re gone.   I hold onto my memories, never Do I want to forget your life. You are my brother and always will be Not even death can take that away from me.

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Open to  hope

Choose to Let Go of Grief and Pain

Wild-eyed, I stared at the reflection in the mirror.  I no longer recognised myself.  My eyes were haunted by the pain and suffering not only of my brother’s death but of all the other losses I’d experienced throughout my life. My once long red hair was gone, hacked off in a fit of fury as I tried to rid myself of the wild emotions coursing throughout my very being.  All that remained was a bald scalp. My vision blurred, a result of the all the tablets and alcohol I’d thrown down my throat in an attempt to appease the pain.  […]

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Open to  hope

The Unique Nature of Sibling Loss

I can still remember the call that told me my younger brother was dead. It was from my grandmother. Funnily enough, I’d been contemplating that my grandparents were getting old and that I needed to prepare myself for their deaths. I never expected that I would receive a call from them to tell me that my brother had crashed his car into a lamp post on the way home from a concert and was killed immediately. He was 17; I was 22. The death of a sibling is strange. Everyone asks how your parents are, but everyone seems to forget […]

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Open to  hope

Can We Use Loss to Become Something More?

In one moment, all that we hold dear and cherish is shattered, never to be the same. We are left floundering in a pit of uncertainty. We drown as wave after wave of unknown and unexpected emotions wash over us. In that moment, we cannot see the path forward; there is no light shining for us that guides us through this. We have to rely on ourselves and we are unequipped. Questions of an immense nature begin to form in our minds, and we are at a loss at how to answer them. We question the very essence of who […]

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Open to  hope

Photos and Coping with Grief and Loss

As part of the grieving process, we tend to sit and spend time looking at photos of ourselves and our loved ones. We remember the good times and cry over the fact that they are gone. Indeed there is a general suggestion that we create a photo album of our loved one so that we have something to remember them by. But what if doing so actually causes us more pain than needed? Photos are an incredibly recent invention. Before that we had paintings and not everyone had a picture created of themselves. It was something that was reserved for […]

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Open to  hope

What Seasons Can Teach Us About Loss

Grief is a natural response to the loss of something, so where better to look for understanding about grief and loss than to nature itself? If we look at the seasons, we can gain understanding about how grief affects us and how we can support ourselves as we move through our own seasons of grief. Winter arrives the moment we find out about our loss. Like a blanket of snow the covers the ground, our knowledge that everything has changed stops us in our tracks. This is the time to rest and allow yourself space and time to recover. Just […]

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Open to  hope

Exploring Positive Emotions In Loss and Grief

Loss throws us into a world of unknown emotions, some of which we may never have experienced before. Understanding these emotions can be a key factor in transforming through loss. Yet it can be hard to accept some feelings. It requires us to be brutally honest with ourselves and acknowledge that there are no right or wrong emotions. If we do not acknowledge those emotions, however, they stay forever locked within us, becoming a burden that limits our ability to truly live. The common emotions usually listed are: disbelief, guilt, fear, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Yet I want to […]

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Open to  hope

Don’t Just Heal Grief, Transform it

There is a tendency in our society to talk about healing loss, like it is a physical wound.  It reduces loss to nothing more than an illness to be cured.  Our objective is to heal it as quickly as possible and get back to normal. This approach has failed us in our understanding of loss and made us miss the real nature of loss.  It has created a society that is reluctant to express loss, and we thus keep the loss inside of us, instead of letting it go. Transformation is the real nature of loss.  It shows us that […]

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