Webinar: Growing with our Grief - A Somatic (Mind, Body, Spirit/Soul) Approach
June 24, 2025, 12:00 PM-1:00 PM Eastern
Grief is not just an emotional experience—it profoundly impacts the body and nervous system. The loss of a loved one can activate the brain's stress response, increasing cortisol levels and shifting the body into survival states like fight, flight, or freeze. Over time, unresolved grief can manifest physically as tension, fatigue, or chronic stress. Understanding this connection allows families to use somatic healing tools to regulate emotions and find relief.
This session introduces three key somatic frameworks to support grief processing: vagus nerve stimulation, bilateral movement, and pendulation. Activating the vagus nerve through breathwork, sound vibration, and gentle touch helps restore a sense of safety and connection. Bilateral movement—such as walking, rocking, or tapping—engages both hemispheres of the brain, promoting emotional integration and nervous system balance. Pendulation teaches families to navigate the natural rhythm of grief, moving between contraction (pain, withdrawal) and expansion (relief, connection) through guided breath pacing and tension-release exercises. Participants will leave with practical tools to regulate emotions, process grief through movement, and create space for healing while honoring their loss. The session concludes with a gentle breath and movement practice to foster resilience and connection.
This webinar is presented by the TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing®.
Presenter
Amy Pickett-Williams, LCSW, RYT
Amy has over 25 years of experience providing grief psychotherapy, specializing in supporting families who have experienced the death of a child, as well as those navigating other profound losses—including infertility, life-threatening illness, injury, relationship loss, and identity shifts. She also has a passion for working with postpartum women and those experiencing anxiety. As a licensed clinical social worker and registered yoga teacher, Amy integrates somatic (mind-body) healing with traditional grief support. She believes that grief is not just emotional but also deeply physiological, and she incorporates polyvagal theory, the window of tolerance, and growing around grief into her work. In 2023, she founded The LIGHT Movement, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing somatic tools to those grieving worldwide. Through workshops, trainings, retreats, and donation-based yoga, The LIGHT Movement has reached over 5,000 people. The organization teaches science and min/body-based tools, helping individuals regulate their nervous systems, process grief through the body, and find meaning in loss. Amy teaches widely on somatic grief, offering CE-accredited trainings, grief-informed yoga education, and specialized workshops for professionals, organizations, and grieving communities. Her mission is to help grow with grief—not just survive it—by fostering connection, embodiment, and resilience.
About the TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing®
The TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing® is positioned to be the national and worldwide leader in training and education for bereavement professionals, bereaved individuals, and grieving military, veteran and civilian families. The Institute serves as a resource and training center, providing a hub for high-quality collaboration among professionals working in the field of grief and loss.
The Institute is where practical information on coping with loss are accessible for all who seek current strategies, the most effective tools, and best practices for supporting those who are grieving and those who serve the grieving.
The Institute provides workshops, seminars, panel discussions, and more to educate caregivers, mental health professionals, clergy, funeral directors, casualty officers, the bereaved themselves, and so many others on the best ways to travel the grief journey.
TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing® is located at TAPS Headquarters, 3033 Wilson Blvd., Third Floor, Arlington, VA 22201
Email us at Institute@taps.org or give us a call at 800-959-8277 (TAPS) with any questions.