Grief as Love Transformed
In a world that often rushes to heal, fix, and move forward, Angela Grant stands as a beacon for those who need permission to pause, feel, and honor their deepest losses. As the founder of Angela's Anchor, she has created something revolutionary in the wellness space: a sanctuary where grief isn't treated as a problem to solve, but as sacred medicine that transforms us from the inside out.
Angela's journey into grief work wasn't born from academic study alone—though her Master's in Applied Psychology and years as a school counselor provided essential foundations. It was forged in the crucible of profound personal loss when she lost her fiancé, shattering not just her heart but the entire future she had envisioned. From those ashes rose a calling that would touch countless lives: to help others navigate their losses with grace, gentleness, and the radical belief that grief and love can be held simultaneously.
"Grief isn't linear, and it doesn't follow deadlines," Angela explains, challenging our culture's tendency to treat grief like a checkbox on a healing to-do list. "I don't believe in fixing grief because grief isn't broken—it's sacred. It's evidence that we loved deeply. Grief is simply love transformed."
Through Angela's Anchor, she has pioneered an approach that honors the full spectrum of human emotion—creating space not just for tears and sorrow, but for joy, laughter, and hope to coexist with loss. Her retreats, coaching, and community events use storytelling, embodiment practices, and the power of shared experience to help people stop fighting their grief and start learning from it.
What sets Angela apart in the wellness landscape is her understanding that grief extends far beyond death. Her work encompasses all forms of loss—relationships, dreams, health, identity—recognizing that life's transitions often require us to grieve what was before we can embrace what's becoming. With her signature framework L.I.F.T. (Life Is Full of Transitions), she guides people in knowing when it's time to lift their anchor and trust the next chapter of their story.
In our conversation, Angela reveals how her deepest wound became her greatest gift, why she believes grief is actually a companion to joy, and how she's redefining what it means to heal in a culture obsessed with moving on.
You've transformed one of life's most devastating experiences - losing your fiancé - into a mission of healing and hope through Angela's Anchor. Can you walk us through that journey of turning personal grief into a calling to serve others? What was the pivotal moment when you realized your pain could become a source of healing for others?
Losing my fiancé shattered my world. I didn’t just lose him — I lost the life we planned and dreamed of. I had to learn what it meant to love, dream, and desire again.
The shift came over time; I can’t say that there was a pivotal moment. There were multiple moments of confirmation that my work and lived experience were calling me forth. Such as the feedback and reviews from people who either heard or read my story. There was also the time I was helping a student, and they said to me, “Ms. Grant, it’s like you pulled back the curtain and allowed the light to come in.” That moment has stayed with me, reminding me that healing doesn’t mean erasing the pain — it means honoring it, leaning into it to let it teach us, and allowing it to make us wiser and more compassionate.
Angela’s Anchor was born out of that space — a place where pain wasn’t hidden or rushed through, but held. My grief became the foundation for my calling: to help others navigate their losses with grace, gentleness, hope, and a belief that even in grief love can be held simultaneously.
You mention that your approach is "not to fix grief, but to honor it and hold space for it." This perspective challenges how our society typically views grief. How do you help people shift from trying to "get over" their loss to moving through it with grace and finding joy again? What does this process look like in your retreats and coaching work?
Our culture tends to treat grief like a problem to solve — something to “get over” or “move on from.” But grief isn’t linear, and it doesn’t follow deadlines. I don’t believe in fixing grief because grief isn’t broken — it’s sacred. It’s evidence that we loved deeply. Grief is simply love transformed.
At Angela’s Anchor, we help people stop fighting their grief and start honoring it. In our retreats, events, and through coaching, we create a safe and sacred space where people can be fully themselves — messy, hopeful, angry, quiet, broken open — however they show up. We use storytelling, embodiment practices, journaling, and the appreciation of community to navigate through emotions, rather than bypassing them.
Joy is a companion to grief. Some of the most powerful moments occur when someone who hasn’t laughed in a while hears themselves laugh again and feel the joy it brings — not because the grief is gone, but because they've given themselves permission to feel all the emotions unapologetically.
With your Master's in Applied Psychology and 20+ years in education and counseling, you bring both professional expertise and lived experience to your wellness work. How do these different aspects of your background - the academic training, the counseling experience, and your personal journey through loss - come together to inform your unique approach to grief and wellness coaching?
My career in education and counseling laid a strong foundation for what I do now. With a Master’s in Applied Psychology, I understand the cognitive, emotional, and physiological layers of grief. As a school counselor, I had the responsibility to help students, teachers, administration, as well as parents deal with some difficult issues. This taught me how to hold space for people of all ages — to see not just their pain, but their potential. It also helped me to recognize that grief is not simply a response to losing someone to death, but grief can find you after various losses in life. My journey through loss gave me what no classroom ever could: the lived experience of grief and what it takes to love, trust, and hope again.
I blend science, soul, and story to not only honor the evidence-based tools that support healing, but to intentionally lean into the sacred, the intuitive, and the creative. I know what it’s like to feel lost — and to find beauty in the ashes.
At Angela’s Anchor, this may sound contradictory to what most would consider grief to be, but we believe grief is a gift — staying present to what matters and what mattered, and teaching us how to live and love more fully. And when Life Is Full of Transitions, we help you know when it’s time to L.I.F.T. your anchor and trust the next chapter.
Are you a woman leader with an inspiring journey to tell? Founded by Women is on a mission to elevate and amplify the voices of women making an impact.
If you're breaking barriers, driving change, or paving the way for others, we’d love to feature your story. Get in touch with us today!
👉 hi@foundedbywomen.org
