Gentle and compassionate grief support
Because it is by turning towards grief & integrating it into our lives that we can go on to live meaningfully and love deeply.
“Healing doesn’t mean that we rid ourselves of grief but rather, that we integrate the loss and go on to live a full and meaningful life.”
— Marie Goudreau
About me.
Marie, is a certified death doula who specializes in walking alongside those having suffered a profound loss.
She is the founder of Empowered Through Grief, a trauma-informed coaching practice that offers end of life and grief support, both online & in person in the Greater Montreal area. Her work is based on a companioning philosophy when it comes to grief support.
Her approach is based on the assumption that you are the expert of your own grief and her work focuses on slow integration to help you develop a deeper connection to who you’re becoming, support you in finding meaning in life after loss & to cultivate an enduring bond with your late loved one.
Marie’s practice offers multiple group spaces where healing & growth are fostered in connection with other grieving hearts as well as individual grief support.
Certifications & Trainings
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End-of-life Specialist (death doula)
Trained and certified by the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Toronto, Canada.
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Grief Companioning Skills training
Trained and certified by educator and grief counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt at the Center for Loss and Life Transitions in Colorado, USA.
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Continuing education & training
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training through LivingWorks
Trauma-informed group facilitation training with Katie Kurtz
Contact us.
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Services are offered online
In English & French
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 52006, Laval, CP, Fabreville, Qc, H7P 5S1
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empoweredthroughlife@gmail.com
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empoweredthroughlife@gmail.com
Grief support that meets you where you are.
1:1 Grief Support
Are you struggling to find the right kind of support in grief?
Living with a deep loss can impact all facets of your life. Long-term support can help you explore & make sense of the complexities of your loss while slowly assist you in re-engaging with life in a meaningful way.
In grief, we need to tell our story and we need unconditional support as we attempt to put the pieces of our shattered heart (and life) back together in a new way. We need people and spaces that allow us to come just as we are. We might be shattered one day and plead for our person to come back and hopeful the next day, emboldened to carry our lives forward.
The complex nature of grief demands a particular kind of gentle and compassionate support.
I specialize in creating brave spaces for women to tell the truth about what it is really like to live with loss. Here, you’ll explore all of the manifestations of your grief and process the emotions and beliefs that come with loss without judgement, expectations or platitudes. I guide women with compassion as they redefine their identity, process difficult emotions and find meaning in their lives again.
Healing together. Find our support groups below.
Sisterhood in Grief (for early grievers)
Although grief is a universal experience, when it happens to you, it is really lonely.
Feeling isolated, alone, misunderstood and unseen in their grief is something that most grievers struggle with.
Our friends and family may try to support us but they fall short and unintentionally hurt us because they lack the understanding that you only get from having to live with a profound loss.
That’s where the idea for Sisterhood in Grief came from.
There is so much healing that occurs from having a space for truth telling about what it’s really like to live with loss. Being held and witnessed by a community of women that truly “gets it” is a powerful experience.
Sisterhood in Grief is an intimate group experience for women who are looking for a support group AND coaching experience that will support them in the early days of partner loss.
It’s 12 weeks of gentle grief coaching led by me which will give you a better understanding of the grieving process and of the complexities specific to partner loss. Together, we slowly begin to cultivate hope and to find a path forward towards rebuilding.
It is both a community AND a grief coaching experience that will change how you relate to your grief.
A new cohort will open in the Fall of 2025.
The Membership
Be held, for 12 months, in a space that is specific to partner loss, meant to help you understand and cope with the manifestations of grief & trauma in your life in the after.
The grief landscape of partner loss is vast and this space will allow you the time to begin integrating & processing this major loss.
Together, we learn and explore trauma recovery, integration & rebuilding in the midst of widowhood.
This program is designed for those who wish to have long-term group support that is also flexible.
This space is co-facilitated by Marie and other guest facilitators which offers a diversity of expertise to the group throughout the year.
The next cohort starts January 2025 for 12 months.
Enrolment is open now.
Allow yourself to grieve well so that you can live fully, love deeply & rebuild a profoundly meaningful life around this loss
Integrative GROWTH (for widows in the rebuilding)
Integrative Growth is a 4 month long space that will gently guide you in rebuilding a life that feels aligned and meaningful in the “after”.
Co-facilitated by Amelia Bradaric, Trauma Therapist & Clinical Director at Adventuring Loss, the group is trauma informed and provides a truly supportive environment to explore what living fully after loss might look like for you.
The loss of a life partner is a transformative experience.
Most likely, this experience has impacted your sense of identity, your perspective on life and the way you navigate the world.
In the space between what was and what will be, Integrative Growth invites you to cultivate a deeper understanding of who you are becoming.
We will help facilitate a rebuilding journey that is intentional and rooted in your integrity.
Let’s move towards what’s next in a way that honours your humanness and feels sustainable.
The 3rd cohort will run from September to December 2025.
Mentorship for practitioners working in bereavement
The Mentorship for grief support practitioners
Because you desire to build (and grow) a heart-centered, ethical & abundant practice that brings true companionship and healing to those who grieve.
The Mentorship brings together 4 (max) grief support practitioners in an intimate group space that assists you in building a responsible, abundant & sustainable business that fulfills your soul’s calling to create healing holding spaces for grief.
There’s a lot that goes into building a business that is responsible & ethical for your clients while also being abundant and purposeful for you.
The Mentorship is a space to explore & refine FOUR dimensions of your business:
Self Care
Ethical Considerations
Growing your business
Deepening your skills and continuing education
Here, you ensure that as your business grows in ways that feel expansive and exciting for you, it is always rooted in values of integrity, trust and responsibility.
That is what will set you apart from other grief coaches and make your business sustainable over time.
Self-Paced Courses
Memories, Meaning, Legacy:
A 10 week self-paced writing course to safeguard your memories after the loss of a partner.
In my work with widows, I have seen time and time again, the suffering and anxiety that comes from the fear of forgetting. The passing of time creates a fog around our memories and can make details, moments and events less vivid over time.
After the loss of a partner, we become the sole memory keepers of a life that’s now bound to the past. Some memories are big and defining and have photos which can help us remember them better. But some memories exists only between two people. Those quiet intimate moments that are like a secret language between partners are precious and deeply meaningful and I want to help you immortalize them.
I have created this offering to help you remember and record some of your most precious memories. Find out more about the course now.
Podcast Interviews
What Clients Are Saying
“What I most want to express is gratitude for all that I have learned through this process. I have gratitude for you, your commitment to my healing, and for holding a safe space for me to have genuine, truthful conversations about the grief of not only watching my beloved die, but a part of myself as well. You have continuously held the belief for me that he will never leave me even in my moments of sadness and fear. The tools presented have given me the opportunity to delve into what are the roots of my anxiety and how I actively avoid it. With the awareness, as tough as it may be, comes healing. No longer do I awake crying because I awoke. I do not feel the desperation I once did.
The work is just that—it is a commitment to practice, to put forth the effort, to embrace change despite the discomfort that may come. I now find there are areas of my life that I find joy and peace. I am finding what makes me authentic and relevant for who I am now, because the loss of the love of my life has irrevocably changed and molded me into another being. Thank you”,
— Mary B.
“Thank you for helping me see that I do have a true vision of myself through the eyes of my brother. And that it's so important I take time to tap into his vision of me, because it helps me align with my true self while shedding the stories that have been projected onto me throughout my whole life, due to external wounding that was not my own. I am thankful for the safe space you have provided through this work. It is getting me more in touch with myself every day”.
— Anita F.
“I started working with M-C two years into my grief journey. I had read all the books, done all the therapy, but my life still didn’t feel like “me," which left me unhappy and unsatisfied with most aspects of my life.
I joined M-C’s Empowered Through Grief program, hoping to gain something new that I had not found elsewhere. And I did! She has helped me first to realize that I have been living in victim mode for two years without even noticing it, and second, to help me consciously step out of that mindset and into a life of gratitude.
This has been transformational for me, and the program overall has helped me look at my healing journey through a new lens. I am the creator of my life, and creating a life that aligns with this new “me” post-loss is something that has brought me total clarity and purpose. All the opposition and uncertainty has disappeared, and I owe much of it to the work I did with M-C”.
— Jennifer C.
“Just want to say thank you Marie. You are such a skilled facilitator. The space, shaped by your expertise, experience and emotional intelligence is the perfect forum for sharing. The world is a better place because of your work.”
— Susie W. on her experience in Sisterhood in Grief (cohort 1)
“Thank you Marie-Claude for creating such a beautiful and sacred space. I have learned so much. You are such a bright and beautiful guiding light for us on this earthly plane and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing so openly your love and loss of A, for doing the hard work of processing all of the strategies and knowledge you have gathered surrounding grief and so lovingly share this information with other women. Your hard work, empathy, kindness and care make the grief path just a wee bit easier to navigate. Your work is a calling”.
— Maureen on her experience in Sisterhood in Grief (2nd cohort)