About Debbie
I Have Stood Where
You Are Standing
Debbie Rivera · Certified Grief Coach · Virtually and Tampa, Florida
I won't hand you a map of my grief. Yours is your own, and it will look nothing like mine. But there are parts of this you won't have to explain to me, and that turns out to matter more than almost anything else.
The photograph behind these words is a real sunset, taken on my first birthday without my husband. Darkness gathering, and light still breaking through. It told me the truth about grief, and it became the heart of Loss Into Light.
Why I Do This Work
Where I've Been
Nearly every bereaved parent I've sat with believes the same thing: that no one can possibly understand this unless it has happened to them.
I'm not going to argue with that. I think it's mostly true — of losing a child, and of the other losses too, including the ones nobody thinks to call grief.
So I'll tell you where I've been. Not to compare, and not because my losses are the point. Just so you know which parts you won't have to explain to me.
- My father died when I was 22. A brain tumor took my strength, my wisdom, my protection, and my biggest fan, at an age when I still thought fathers were permanent.
- I lost my son, Patrick.
- I lost my mother, and eleven days later I lost my husband — David, my Doc, the love of my life, the one who called me his Magic Princess — on December 14, 2024. There was no room between them to begin.
- I've had breast cancer, and then lymphoma, and twice had to grieve the body I trusted and the assumption that tomorrow was mine to plan.
- There have been hurricanes and a tornado, and losses with no funeral attached — a home, a sense of safety, roles and places I gave fourteen years of my heart to.
That's the doorway. That's all it's meant to be. When we talk, you now know a bit about me.
No Two Are Alike
Every Grief Is Different — Including Yours
No two griefs are alike. My own aren't alike. Losing my father at 22 and losing my mother and David at the end of 2024 were not the same journey, and what got me through one was no use at all in the others.
So I won't be handing you a map of mine. I've been on the other side of that — of "at least you have other children," and of a woman singing at my child's funeral that God needed another angel — or "you will be okay" - so I know what careless help costs. remember, this is your journey and no one can tell you how you need to grieve.
What I can tell you is that nothing you say will shock me or need softening first, and you won't have to justify how long it's been or prove your loss was big enough to count.
How We'd Work
How Grief Coaching Works With Me
We look at it together.
We start with what it meant
Not the facts of what happened — those matter, but they aren't the thing. What it meant. What went with it. What your life had in it that it doesn't have now. And you're the one who names it. Not me. Whatever you call it is where we start, and we work out from there.
We set down what isn't yours to carry
Most people arrive with guilt and regret stacked on top of the grief itself — the last conversation, the thing left unsaid, the appointment nobody pushed for. That's a second load on top of the first, and a good deal of what we do together is putting it down.
We find one thing you can do
One, even when you think you can't. Not a plan for the year, not a stage you're supposed to have reached by now. One tiny step. Some days, one breath.
And maybe two minutes of peace
That's honestly what I'm after early on — two minutes where the weight is lighter. Then a little more next time. Then more again. It isn't a breakthrough. It's ground you get back a piece at a time, and you don't have to cover it alone.
About the Light
Finding Your Light
Loss Into Light isn't me handing you my light. It's the light that's already yours — the one inside your loss, the one I don't believe was ever really put out.
My way through isn't the way anyone else has to do this. I had to find mine. What I've come to believe is that each person already has the right way inside them, and my job is to help bring it out where you can see it — with all the pain and the darkness, not instead of them.
I don't know what yours looks like. It won't be shaped like mine or arrive on the same schedule, and it may turn out to be something you'd never have gone looking for. That part isn't mine to tell you. I can walk with you while you find it.
On my first birthday without David, I watched a sunset — darkness gathering, light still breaking through. That was where the name came from, and it's still the truest thing I know about grief.
Debbie Rivera, Virtually and Tampa, Florida
Training & Experience
My Training
Lived experience on its own isn't enough. Grief needs some skill alongside the recognition — and grief doesn't only live in your thoughts. It sits in the chest and the shoulders and the three o'clock hour, and it has to be met there too.
Certified Grief Coach
Transformation Academy
Breath, Movement, Connection, Transformation Training
Paul Denniston method — gentle, accessible movement for grieving bodies
Chapter Leader, 14+ Years
The Compassionate Friends of Tampa Bay — walking beside families after the death of a child
Lay Pastoral Ministry
Four-year certification — ministering to hearts in crisis and loss
Bereavement Ministry Founder
Ongoing community support for grieving families
Somatic Grief Training
Body-centered approaches woven through everything I offer
Relationship Coach
Founder of Faces of the Heart — supporting couples through crisis and grief
Grief Retreats & Circles
Creating spaces where grieving hearts are witnessed, not managed
Grief coaching is companioning, not crisis care. If you're in immediate danger or thinking about ending your life, please reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 in the US — any hour, any day. If what you're carrying needs clinical treatment, I'll say so and help you find it.
From My Heart to Yours
What I want is for you to have somewhere it's safe to breathe again. If that's what you're looking for, I'd be glad to talk.