Close-up of an abstract painting with textured brushstrokes in earthy tones and accents of red, yellow, and dark blue.

Cathy Bamji

Certified Grief Educator and Coach

For nearly thirty years I worked as as a business consultant, facilitator, and project manager; helping clients understand and improve the way they do their work. In 2016 I expanded that passion from organizations to working with individuals standing at pivotal moments of transition, becoming a Board Certified Coach and offering workshops on Reimaging Life. My volunteer work took me to CaringMatters, as an Adult Bereavement Facilitator working with weekly peer-to-peer grief groups and annual caregiver retreats. In 2025 I became a Certified Grief Educator with David Kessler, finally linking my purpose to my my deeper motivations.

Passion for Helping Others

Purpose: 

Enable a healthy human community by providing space and process for self-reflection, integration and action.

Personal Values

  • Encounter each day, each moment as it is.

  • Act with compassion, respect and integrity.

  • Learn and explore new places and ideas.

Turning to the Page

I am an avid journaler. Turning to the page is where I find comfort, explore complicated feelings, bare my deepest fears, reveal what I believe to be true, and learn to let go of ideas that hold me back. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 1996 my journal became my best friend, allowing me to dump out everything in my head so that I could more fully engage with my mom in the moment. I had no idea at the time that I was practicing a well-known grief tool. I only knew it helped me during mom’s illness and after her death to deal with all my complicated feelings. This process has served me well over the years and is now the one I pass along to others as they journey through their own loss and grief.

Two women sitting at a wooden picnic table outdoors, one reading a book and the other writing in a notebook, with a cup of iced coffee between them.

While I did not share all of my writing, I did share some - culminating in a grief workbook, This Too Shall Pass: A Journey Through Grief to the Other Side. This book is now out of print, but a second edition is in the works. Sharing my experiences and writings with others has provided additional meaning to my life and to my mom’s legacy. To further assist others who are writing their way forward, I created Shadow & Light: Cards for Navigating Loss, Grief, and Healing. You can learn about them here.

Publications: 

  • This Too Shall Pass, A Journey through Grief to the Other Side, Motivational Press, 2017

  • Grief Journey at QuietMountainEssays.com, 2005.

  • Follow Your Instincts in Heart by Heart: Mothers and Daughters Listening to Each Other, iUniverse, Inc 2004

  • The Butterfly in A Poem For Every Day, Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2006

  • Managing Through the Uncertainty of COVID, NCDA Career Convergence Web Magazine, June 2020

  • Being Effective in a Multi-Generational Workplace, NCDA Career Convergence Web Magazine, August 2019