Meet Karissa Blevin of Carter Girls Grief And Healing
Since I was eight years old, I had lived in a home where active addiction tore our family apart. I always had this intuitive trait that helped me tend to my siblings when chaos tormented us, and heal my mental and emotional health. Something I carried through adulthood, but at the same time I had developed some nasty habits. About 10 years ago I was introduced to cognitive behavioral therapy, this helped me essentially re-parent myself as an adult and helped me create healthy comping skills. I’ve been studying this ever since, In 2016, my girls and I lost their father, although we weren’t together I grieved in every way. As a former partner, the mother of his children and friend. It was the hardest thing to work through in my life, yet when I held steady into the habits and skills, I was able to sit up from the fetal position and face the world again. Grief can be debilitating, and for some of us, we can’t imagine life after losing someone so close. It is my mission to build up other widows, and help them embrace life after loss. Navigating the waves of grief, one season at a time.
Far from smooth. Grief, motherhood, and family issues are never easy. Grief especially. Every day is different, sometimes you think things are going fine, then one song on the radio comes on and you’re a mess. Parenting my children through this has probably been the hardest. Showing yourself grace after you’ve lost your patience is hard. But I committed to being transparent with my girls, teaching them it’s ok to actually feel our feelings, take time out, apologize when we mess up—as a mother, being intentional with reminding myself of those same practices. This is what inspired my purpose in this work. Women are so hard on themselves. Many see no recovery after losing a spouse.
Carter Girls Grief & Healing is an online community where grieving women can share in a safe environment what they are going through. I am a certified Life Coach for widows, specializing in empowering women to embrace life after losing their spouse. I am most proud of all the women we have served. They are looking back at the world again and seeing the opportunity and doing amazing things in their communities. They are reaching back into our website community and in our Facebook support group “Women’s Grief Support,” inspiring and nurturing other women. We provide an individual approach to serving these women, what’s important to their values and goals throughout this process. We teach them how to create this new life on their own, furthermore empowering them and build confidence in themselves. We give the step by step guide to navigating grief for widows.
Success is watching my daughters thrive in this life, even if they find themselves missing daddy. As the same for my clients. To watch a women rise from the heart ache and devastation , to look out at life and appreciate what she still has though she has endured such loss. The number of good days they have opposed to sad, the number of days they have had smiling between those of grief, these markers in their progress means they are experiencing success in a life they didn’t believe they could.
