About Debbie
I Have Stood Where
You Are Standing
Everything I offer comes from a life that has known profound loss — and from the long, tender journey of finding my own light again. I don't teach grief from a textbook. I teach it from the road I've walked.
The photo 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 Understand
My Heart Knows This Road
People sometimes ask how I can sit so steadily with the deepest grief. The answer is simple and costly: because grief and I are old companions. I have known:
- The death of my beloved husband, David "Doc" Rivera — my partner, my renaissance man, the one who called me his Magic Princess.
- The long ache of losses that came before and after him — the kind that reshape who you are.
- The loss of community and identity — of places and roles I poured fourteen years of my heart into.
- The grief no one sends flowers for — the endings, the changes, the futures that never came to be.
I have sat in the darkness and wondered if the light would ever return. And I can tell you, with my whole heart: it does. Not the same light. A new one — filled in like gold along the broken places.
My Story
From Loss Into Light — Literally
Love, and Everything It Built
My life has been shaped by deep love — for my husband David, for family, for the communities we built together. Love taught me what mattered. And love, as it always does, set the stage for grief: we only grieve what we truly loved.
The Breaking
Loss came — the kind that breaks you open and rearranges everything you thought you knew. There were seasons I could barely imagine morning, let alone purpose. I know what it is to wear the mask, to be strong for everyone, and to wonder in the quiet if I would ever feel like myself again.
Learning to Companion
Even in my own grief, I felt a pull toward other grieving hearts. For more than fourteen years I led a chapter of The Compassionate Friends, sitting beside bereaved parents and families through the deepest grief there is. I trained — as a Certified Grief Coach, a Certified Grief Yoga® Teacher, through four years of Lay Pastoral Ministry — because the hearts in front of me deserved everything I could learn. But my truest education came from the hundreds of grieving people who let me walk beside them.
The Light, and This Work
On my first birthday without my husband, I watched a sunset — darkness gathering, light still breaking through — and understood: the light was never extinguished. It lives within the loss, waiting to be found. Loss Into Light was born in that moment. Everything I now offer flows through my broken places, not around them. My cracks are where my calling lives. They are, quite literally, my gold.
Training & Experience
The Foundation Beneath the Heart
Lived experience is my most important credential — but it stands on years of dedicated training and service:
Certified Grief Coach
Transformation Academy
Certified Grief Yoga® Teacher
Paul Denniston method — gentle, accessible movement for grieving bodies
14+ Years Chapter Leader
The Compassionate Friends of Tampa Bay — supporting families after the death of a child
Lay Pastoral Ministry
Four-year certification program — ministering to hearts in crisis and loss
Bereavement Ministry Founder
Creating ongoing community support for the grieving
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
Author & Advocate
Writing and speaking on grief, hope, and healing
From My Heart to Yours
I've seen the darkest grief there is. And I have never once stopped believing in the light. Let me help you find yours.