Claudia Coenen

Claudia Coenen is a Thanatologist and Grief Counselor in private practice in Hudson, NY. She is the author of Shattered by Grief: Picking up the pieces to become WHOLE again and the Karuna Cards: Creative Ideas to Transform Grief and Difficult Life Transitions. Claudia wrote The Creative Toolkit for Working with Grief and Bereavement: A Practitioner's Guide which contains an overview of grief theory and current models in use today, along with 30 activity sheets to help process grief. Seasons of Grief: Creative Interventions to Support Bereaved People, is a collaboration with 17 therapists, professors, doulas and artists, offering rich techniques to move through grief.

Claudia has been involved in creative expression her whole life. As a child and teen, she performed folk music with her family. She started dancing at the age of 3 and continued to perform and choreograph well into midlife. Claudia went back to school for a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Psychology after the death of her husband, Alby. She holds three certificates in Grief Counseling and Thanatology, from Brooklyn College, The Association for Death Education and Counseling and from The Portland Institute for Loss and Transition. After the death of her second husband, Claudia continues to be curious about how we re-engage in our lives after multiple losses and what enables us to find purpose and meaning through various life transitions.

Claudia appears regularly on podcasts and radio programs. She has been a Keynote Speaker at Sofia University, a guest lecturer at Ramapo College, Marion University and The Portland Institute. She presents in-service workshops for mental health clinics, hospital groups and offers talks to community organizations. Her focus on transforming life after loss and discovering resilience will soon be presented in a new book and in a new deck of Karuna Cards.