Grief and bereavement · Spousal loss · Supporting the griever
Kathleen
Paris
PhD · Certified Grief Support Specialist · Author
She helps people who have lost a spouse or partner navigate grief by sharing her own.
Kathleen wrote Gentle Comforts after her husband died in 2018. Thirty years as a management consultant taught her how to make hard things practical, and she brings both to a room: the physical and emotional realities of grief, what actually helps, and what to say when it is someone else's loss.
Wisconsin
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Gentle Comforts for Surviving the Loss of a Spouse or Partner
The unexpected physical and mental responses to grief, and research supported strategies for moving forward.
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- Audience
- Grief and bereavement groups, senior living communities, women's organizations, HR teams, faith and community groups
- Known for
- Spousal and partner loss, the physical dimensions of grief, supporting the griever, employer best practices
- Based in
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Virtual
- Yes
- Delivers
- Talks, seminars, retreat sessions, book talks, and meetings
- Credential
- PhD, Certified Grief Support Specialist, and Distinguished Consultant Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Your selections travel into the copied brief, so your committee sees Kathleen against your event, not a generic listing.
Straight answers
Quick answers for event planners.
What topics does Kathleen Paris speak about?
The physical as well as emotional dimensions of grief, nutrition and movement in the grief journey, strategies that have helped other grievers move forward, supporting grieving friends and family, and employer best practices for supporting employees in grief.
Who is Kathleen Paris best suited to speak for?
Groups where loss is already in the room or nearby: senior living and retirement communities, women's organizations, faith and community groups, grief and bereavement programs, and wellness or continuing education series. Her employer session is built for HR teams and managers instead.
Is this a therapy session or a counseling talk?
No. She is a Certified Grief Support Specialist and an author, not a therapist, and she is clear that what she offers is her own journey plus research supported strategies and practical help. Audiences get honesty and usable ideas rather than clinical treatment, and the sessions tend to open up conversation among the people in the room.
What does the employer session cover?
What to be aware of when someone on your team is grieving, suggestions for what to do, and, in her words, even more importantly what not to do. It is the session for HR teams, managers, and leadership groups rather than for grieving people themselves.
What types of events does Kathleen Paris speak at?
Retreats, meetings, seminars, continuing education programs, senior living community programs, membership organization meetings, and book talks. Recent examples include the American Association of University Women, senior living communities in Wisconsin, a wellness center, and a Zoom conversation series.
Does Kathleen Paris offer virtual presentations?
Yes. She presents both in person and virtually.
Where is Kathleen Paris based, and does she travel?
She is based in Madison, Wisconsin. Over thirty years of consulting she has worked across the United States and internationally in Canada, Cyprus, France, Guam, Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, and the UK.
What outcomes can Kathleen Paris's audience expect?
People who are grieving leave understanding that the physical and mental responses they are having are normal and shared, with research supported strategies for moving forward. People supporting a griever leave knowing what to say and what to avoid. Employers leave with practices they can put into a policy.
What are Kathleen Paris's talk titles?
Gentle Comforts for Surviving the Loss of a Spouse or Partner, How Employers Can Support Grieving Employees, and Grief and Food. She also presents a session she calls Grief: Care of Self and Others.
Has Kathleen Paris written a book?
Several. Gentle Comforts: For Women Grieving the Loss of a Beloved Life Companion came out in 2024, and Kirkus Reviews gave it a Get It verdict. She is also an editor and co-author of Bending Granite: 30+ True Stories of Leading Change, and wrote Staying Healthy in Sick Organizations and Bringing Your Strategic Plan to Life.
What are Kathleen Paris's credentials?
She holds a PhD in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Certified Grief Support Specialist. She holds the title of Distinguished Consultant Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, after thirty years helping organizations plan for new realities and improve their systems and culture.
How do I book Kathleen Paris?
You can reach her by email at kathleen@kathleenparis.com or by phone at 608-445-1085. Her profile is listed in the Charli Jane Speakers Directory.
Talks and sessions
Three ways into the same subject.
One for people who are grieving, one for the people around them, and one for the organizations they work for.
Gentle Comforts for Surviving the Loss of a Spouse or Partner
The session drawn from her book and her own experience. It covers the physical and mental responses to grief that nobody warns you about, the ones that make people wonder whether something is wrong with them, and research supported strategies for moving forward.
She has also presented this material as Grief: Care of Self and Others, and as The Grief Transition, which is about moving from one reality to another. What people take away is the reassurance that what they are experiencing is normal, and specific things to try.
How Employers Can Support Grieving Employees
Grief is, as she titled one article, a full-time job, and it walks into work with the person. This session covers what to be aware of, suggestions for what to do, and, in her words, even more importantly, what not to do.
It is the most practical of her sessions for an organization, because most managers have no training for the moment a team member loses a spouse and are improvising at the worst possible time.
Grief and Food
The overlooked practical problem. Cooking for one after decades of cooking for two, appetite that disappears, and the health consequences that follow for widows and widowers. She covers the nutrition challenges specifically and offers suggestions for eating better during grief, alongside the role of movement in the grief journey.
Supporting grieving friends and family
A session for the people around the loss rather than at the center of it. Most people want to help and are afraid of making it worse, so they say nothing at all. Kathleen offers tips for friends and family on what actually supports a griever, drawn from what helped and did not help her.
Why Kathleen
A consultant's clarity, applied to the hardest subject there is.
Thirty years helping organizations face new realities, then her own. Kirkus Reviews on the book: get it.
I can't stop thinking about your talk last night! I'm so thankful for the wonderful turnout and all the women who shared. I'm thankful for the ideas and the support they got. Thank you for sharing your story and making a difference in our world!
Congratulations Kathleen on Gentle Comforts, such a practical, wise, and heart-filled book. I really like how the grieving process is so thoughtfully and artfully woven into the pages. I will be buying multiple copies for friends who have recently lost their husbands.
Meet Kathleen
She spent a career on new realities, then had to face her own.
"Grief is a full-time job."
Kathleen A. Paris, PhD, is a Certified Grief Support Specialist who shares her own grief journey following the death of her husband in 2018 in Gentle Comforts: For Women Grieving the Loss of a Beloved Life Companion.
As an author, educator, and management consultant, she spent thirty years helping organizations plan for new realities and improve their systems and organizational climate. She holds the title of Distinguished Consultant Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a PhD in Educational Administration from the same institution.
Her consulting took her across the United States and internationally to Canada, Cyprus, France, Guam, Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, and the UK. She is an editor and one of the co-authors of Bending Granite: 30+ True Stories of Leading Change, and has written Staying Healthy in Sick Organizations: The Clover Practice and Bringing Your Strategic Plan to Life.
What she brings to the subject of grief is that same practical instinct. She shares strategies for navigating the loss of a spouse or partner, tips for friends and family who want to support a griever, and guidance for employers on supporting grieving employees, which is a gap most organizations discover far too late.
She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and shares five treasured children with her late husband, Matt Cullen, and thirteen grandchildren.
Could Kathleen be right for your room?
Start with who is in the room.
Whether your audience is grieving, supporting someone who is, or responsible for people who are, the session is different. Send your event date, your group, and which of those it is, and she will tell you honestly whether it fits. Her own site is a second place to get to know her, not a detour.
Email: kathleen@kathleenparis.com
Phone: 608-445-1085
Website: kathleenparis.com