About me

My Philosophy

Healthy adults nurture healthy children. Like children, adults need a support system, resources, and safety. Children are dependent on the systems around them to model and provide resources to their experience. I believe that the best way to put our children first is to put adults and caregivers in the learning and feeling seat. As a pain- and grief-averse culture, we can feel like we are foreign to change and loss, when it is in fact a natural human experience. I believe that by leaning into the topics that we avoid, we can decrease isolation, stigma, and fear while increasing community, connection, and empathy.

The first exposure we have to leadership is through how our family guides us through celebration and loss. It is pivotal that we increase the grief literacy of our caregivers so they can feel equipped for life’s challenges. Leadership is defined in each of us as we empower our voice, define our values, lead our families, and be a part of a community.

I

My “Why”

I learned about the impacts of grief, death and living losses, at a very early age, not only through death, but through living losses. Culturally, children were not entirely included in the process and I only as an adult did I realize the impact of those events. What surprised me further was that not much changed as an adult. We don’t talk about the loss even though it is unavoidable human experience. Only when I started working through my own losses and then with children and families did I realize how it is essential to find our process with loss that allows us to live with grief and reconnect with life.

Background

Jessica holds a BA in Psychology from Cal State San Bernardino, and a Master of Arts in Leadership from Azusa Pacific University, Business and Management. Jessica started her grief work utilizing the Dougy Center Model and continues to utilize those evidence-based practice. She is a member of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief, an advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Coalition for Grieving Students. Jessica was a Children’s Counselor at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Children’s Program for over five years and maintains a close partnership, consulting through a grief-informed lens. She is an active volunteer in her community and was a former Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth in Riverside County.

She enjoys spending time with her husband and twins at the beach, camping, and any other form of outdoor adventure. She enjoys all kinds of food and loves learning from others through their culture and families. She is part of a traditional Hawaiian Hula School, H ālau Ka Lei Kukui Hi’ilani Mainland USA Extension, under Kuma Hula in Training Auntie Kahanoa Floresca, under Kumu Hula Leihi’ilani Kirkpatrick of Kauai.