Elaine Voci

Elaine is a Life Coach in private practice, specializing in life and bereavement coaching and is the author of eight inspirational and educational books. She is also a Certified Life Cycle Celebrant and provides individuals and families in the greater Indianapolis area with personalized and unique ceremonies that mark life’s important transitions. Since 2014, Elaine has hosted and facilitated a quarterly Death Café. When not facilitating programs, coaching, or writing books, she blogs at http://blog.elainevoci.com/ and updates her website, www.elainevoci.com As a Life Cycle Celebrant, I have been trained in the art of ceremony and rituals. I conduct ceremonies of transition, such as weddings, funerals, celebrations of life, baby blessings, new home blessings, and ritual passages such as retirement ceremonies. My life's work and my best thinking on the topics of grief, resilience, and self-compassion are represented in my written books, blogs, workshops, and coaching. I am true to my Italian heritage: I enjoy people, music, good food and wine, and creating hospitality in my home, and in my community engagements. I volunteer with the Immigrant Welcome Center, and have served the Celebrant Foundation as a contributing blog writer. In 2018 and again this year, I have been named one of the Top Ten Best Life Coaches in Indianapolis by expertise.com and it makes me feel happy to contribute to the community through my work.

Articles:

Hope Is Our Anchor

Storm is Coming There once was an old sailor who had been seasoned by his life on the sea to know that storms were a frequent part of the world. Whenever he saw a storm coming, he would calmly lower the anchor, batten down the hatches, and go to bed for the night, knowing that the sea would be rough, but the anchor’s grasp would keep his boat safe. He knew it would be there in the morning. Like that sailor, we, too, have an “anchor” that can help us make it through the storms of our lives. It’s called […]

What Kind of Courage Does Grief Require?

This is an excerpt from The Five Most Harmful Myths About Grief by Elaine Voci, Ph.D. which is available on Amazon.com In writing this booklet, my purpose is to contribute to the specific undoing of five common myths about grief that are untrue and create unnecessary pain, and impose psychological burdens on the bereaved. These myths are the foundation for much of the unsolicited bad advice that bereaved people receive. In my career and in my personal life I have experienced my share of grief, loss, and healing and I have worked in hospice with grieving families, and patients who […]

Building Resilience Through Art

This is an excerpt from Resilience Art: A Grief Coloring Book Using Ritual and Music to Help You Grow by Elaine Voci, Ph.D. which is available on Amazon.com. I believe that we are hard-wired for coping with loss and that some of our coping requires simple, ordinary settings that help us find a path to healing. Among the most powerful are the natural settings in our world, such as parks, large bodies of water, green spaces, public fields of grass, trees, and flowers, inhabited by birds and other living creatures with whom we share this earth. The experiences of beauty […]

Something Beautiful Remains

“Tears will leave no stains, time will ease the pain, For every life that fades, something beautiful remains.” The sunlit formal room, filled with attentive mourners and the family of the deceased, was utterly quiet as I began to read the closing poem, Something Beautiful Remains (author unknown) chosen for the Celebration of Life I had just officiated. The words resonated in my own heart as I spoke them, and I felt compassion well up in my eyes for the heartache of those who had gathered to celebrate the life of their loved one who was a wife, a mom, […]

Suicide, Betrayal and Coming Home

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, Love leaves a memory no one can steal.” an epitaph from a headstone in Ireland I stared at the plain paper note that had come in the mail. It was from Jack, my husband, and said simply, “It’s time for me to take off.” Enclosed in the envelope was a deposit slip showing that he had emptied his checking account and transferred the funds to a household account in both our names. Struggling to breathe, I phoned my adult son who lived nearby; he kept reminding me to “Breathe, Mom, breathe.” I […]

Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.