Childhood
I grew up as the first child of very young parents (my mum was 17 and dad was 18).
Life at home was full of love and fun but also chaos and codependency.
I learned early that life seemed easier if things were kept light and my friends and family soon knew me as “Miss Sunshine.”
Although I do see myself as inherently bright and warm, looking back, I can see there were unacknowledged griefs from my childhood, such as the separation of my parents, mental illness, boarding school and addiction that I didn’t know how to process at the time. This inevitably resurfaced later.
Grief Initiation
When I fell in love with my soulmate, Jono, we planned out our whole lives together.
Our love was so deep.
But my world got turned upside down when Jono drowned, while we were on holiday in Sri Lanka.
I found myself in an ocean of grief, mourning him and our future.
Once the gates were opened, the childhood grief that I’d buried surfaced too.
My old identity of “Miss Sunshine” felt limited and I retreated into a cocoon.
I didn’t know who I was anymore.
Finding Love Again (starting with me)
Call it co-dependcy or call it soulmates but I felt like Jono completed me. I felt completely seen and safe with him. My new work was finding that within myself.
I became a student of grief. Unwittingly it taught me about love.
I threw myself into learning everything I could; reading, listening to mentors, writing and using art as therapy.
I focused my artwork on waves and images of transformation and metamorphosis.
“Lost” by Imogen Shaw, 2019
For the first time I began to feel a whole sense of self, one where there was room for the dark and the light.
My dedication to Grief led me to a retreat in California.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this became the beginning of me immigrating and finding love for my now husband.
My brother’s death
Soon after our first child was born, my 14-year-old brother, Harry, died suddenly in a car accident.
Nothing could have protected me from the pain of losing him or the way our family constellation would be changed forever, but the work I had done with grief gave me a framework to navigate it differently.
Being a mother meant I needed to find ways to weave healing practices and grief-work into busy daily life. This felt different to when I was in the depths of my grief for Jono and I had a lot more time to dedicate to it.
Art as Therapy
Art has always been central to how I process life. As a child, it is how I regulated my nervous system. Even now, my heart rate drops lower than when meditating when I’m drawing or painting.
The loss of Jono and Harry inspired my children’s picture book on grief and I continue to use creative practices to work through emotions and make meaning from loss.
I have studied under world leading grief expert, David Kessler and am proud to say that I am now a Certified Grief Educator.
I help people navigate grief, birth and life’s big changes.
I focus on compassionate space holding, practical tools, creative practices and ritual to help people move through life’s big moments, remembering with more love than pain.
Why I Dedicate Myself to Grief
I see grief as love; letting it flow connects me to my soul, to what’s important to me and to my wild-aliveness.
When I ignore it, depression can sneak in, as can addiction and irritability.
A life woven with grief expression is a life full of authenticity, beauty and love.
I’m so glad you’re here.
