Joyce Wachira Speaks, Grief Literacy & Compassionate Leadership

12/03/2026

Those difficult and necessary questions/conversations we must have.

How do we intentionally support parents and families with children or loved ones in palliative care?

Their grief begins upon the diagnosis of a life-limiting illness and continues as an ever-present companion throughout the illness and after the death of a loved one.

End of Life Grief.
Topic today in Kisumu.

09/02/2026

Do you have wellness sessions in your organisation?

Would you include grief literacy?

Have your staff lost a loved one; spouse, parent, child or someone very close?

Grief literacy at the workplace will provide you, employees and supervisors with tools, language, and empathy required to support colleagues through loss, reducing burnout, brain fog and improving their retention.

JoyceSpeaks Grief Literacy and Companionate Leadership Workshop focuses on normalizing grief conversations like bereavement support, grief support policies, etc

Your staff are the most important resource you have.

As an employer, organization, or institution please take your grief knowledge seriously by signing up for a Compassionate Leadership Grief Literacy Session for you and your staff..

Email
Lifecoachcaregiver@gmail.com

04/02/2026

When a family makes a request

“Please give us privacy as we grieve and mourn our loved one”

They are not asking that you isolate them.

Here are a few things they are communicating to you.

26/01/2026

GRATITUDE

It is not easy to “quantify " or give ratings for grief support. It is a deeply personal, qualitative experience that often defies traditional, mathematical, or star-rating quantification.

Therefore, reading unrequested reviews or ratings after months of grief support is very welcome.

Without exposing details, this unsolicited feedback is not about violating trust but encouraging people to seek help. There is help out there.

My heart is so grateful for this written review. It is rare to see written reviews in grief support; however, Joyce Speaks gets to hear, not read, very many reviews
Heart is grateful.🙏;

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I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the sessions you have walked me through and the intentional guidance you have consistently provided. Your approach has been both professional and deeply humane. You created a safe, structured space where I could unpack heavy emotions, gain clarity, and rebuild strength at my own pace. Each session added value, not just in insight but in practical grounding, helping me navigate my healing journey with more self-awareness and confidence. Your patience, wisdom, and steady presence made a meaningful difference in my life, and I truly appreciate the dedication and care you poured into this process. Thank you for being an anchor, a guide, and a catalyst for growth during a very critical season.
Thank you so much, and may God bless you abundantly

20/01/2026

Emotional stress, irritability, and anger, Intense preoccupation with the loved one, and many things happen to those who are caring for the sick.

At the end of life (EOL), we think that only the patients are “fighting for life.”

Carers/family members are also “fighting for their loved one’s life.”
Carers/family members all have love and different perspectives on how to treat and support their loved one in bed.

Some will question those who are actually present in proximity to the patient, as they are far away and tend to make decisions from a distance without understanding the situation on the ground. This causes friction among the caregivers.

Caregivers are very stressed humans. Shaming and blaming them for “things going wrong” is not fair. They are also doing their best to “fight for their loved one's life.”

Anticipatory grief will also check in for all carers/family members; no one will dare talk about it, but it keeps popping its head through actions and outbursts... this is in addition to family cold wars on caregiving.

Today, I gave this literacy to a family - grateful for the outcome.
Knowledge is power.

09/01/2026

In many cases, gender roles and societal expectations often influence how men and women express grief.

But is the core experience of loss inherently gendered?

Grief is a deeply individual journey, with people showing it through different ways that vary by person, culture, upbringing, and situations, not just gender.

Both genders experience pain, but societal pressures may lead men to internalize or act out grief (e.g., focusing on tasks, avoiding talk), while women are often socialized to express emotions more openly: these are patterns, not rules.

05/01/2026

You have heard about
👉“Time will heal your loss.”
as comfort or support for the bereaved.

You have heard about
👉“Go for counselling or therapy for healing your loss.”
as guidance and advice.

You have heard,
👉“I went for therapy, but did not heal.”
as desperation for "failed" healing.
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What is healing after a loss?

As a grief coach, I look at healing not as “something that will go away with a session/s or time."

It is about what you do with the time, as well as the courage to "feel the pain".

Healing becomes the ability to attend to whatever is hurting, to turn toward where the pain is, and with patience, courage, and clarity, start to discover and recover.

This recovery and discovery (growth) is work that requires you to subscribe to finding a deeper understanding of grief and how it has impacted your personal life.

Growth is the gift you need to give yourself after any kind of loss. Growth is about transforming raw despair into a renewed capacity for joy and purpose, recognizing that loss changes you, but doesn't define your future.
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After loss of a child, the Kenya Chapter of The TEARS Foundation is a good space for peer support.

18/12/2025

Grief work—the difficult mental labor of reconciling your internal map of the world, before a loss, with an external reality of after loss.

That is hard work.

17/12/2025

Can we Speak about creating etiquette for inviting or hosting someone during this holiday season?

Are you inviting them to keep them happy or be a companion to them?

My list,
1. Acknowledge that the year is hard for them, having a first holiday without a father, mother, child, or close friend is very difficult; grief will not be on holiday.

2. Let them know that you do not expect a happy face from them; it is not a requirement for the invite.

3. Invite them and expect them to turn it down now or on the day they are expected to show up. Emotions and decisions are expected to keep shifting.

4. When they attend, cry with them and laugh with them: the double emotions are common and normal.

What's on your list?

15/12/2025

Can we Speak about subjects that people often remain silent about due to discomfort, which are typically those that are controversial, highly stigmatized, or seen to go against faith beliefs/cultures or values?

I chose to Speak on Loss and Grief literacy – for our growth and healing.

Have you silenced someone who expresses love of a lost parent, child, spouse or sibling- using these words?
“What has the dead have to do with the living?”

It is true, the dead are gone from the physical world, but their legacy, memory, and impact (through family, history, or impact on the living) remain, connecting them to the living through remembrance and influence.

Loved ones' legacy connects; it is the lasting impact, values, stories, and essence they leave behind. It’s about finding purpose in grief by embodying their best qualities and ensuring their story continues to inspire.
What do you think?

09/12/2025

As a trained and Certified Grief Coach, I typically present myself with a "human face" in the form of an empathetic individual.

📌Note: I do not take anonymous calls/faceless video calls.

Kindly schedule an in-person meeting or a video session through the email provided. Lifecoachcaregiver@gmail.com

Face-to-face human interaction is a crucial component of effective grief support because it fosters connection, allows for shared vulnerability, and helps combat the isolation that often accompanies loss.

As a human being, I have personal experience with significant losses, and am trained to provide compassionate support and practical strategies for moving forward (not just from clinical or textbook advice but from the profound understanding that comes from genuine, shared human experience in the face of deep loss).

To help me support you, it is important to know and articulate through your email what you want to achieve in this journey.

JoyceSpeaks is a one-on-one,non-judgmental space to process emotions and rebuild a new sense of self after loss.
https://www.instagram.com/joycespeakslife may share some grief literacy tips that ensure you are grief literate as we move along.

For a grief group that is specific to a child loss, from pregnancy to loss of an adult child,
https://thetearsfoundation.org/chapters/kenya/ is a great resource and bereavement care that has an impactful program.

Happy to be able to be supportive and impactful.

09/12/2025

Kenya's first one-stop grief and end-of-life planning resources.

A subject that is not easy, yet necessary. LOSS and Grief.

Support When It Matters Most.
Navigate Loss with Solace.

Solace is Kenya's one-stop platform for bereavement support, offering funeral and memorial planning services, obituary writing, estate guidance, and grief resources. We connect you with trusted service providers, ensuring a seamless and compassionate experience during life's most difficult moments.....