Laurel O’Sullivan, J.D. Grief Advocate/Coach
Helping Individuals & Organizations Build Resilience, Navigate Loss & Transform Through Grief
With 25+ years of experience as a lawyer, transformational coach, grief educator, and consulting astrologer, I specialize in guiding individuals and organizations through life’s most difficult transitions, including grief, trauma, and personal reinvention.
My personal journey through loss—including the suicide of my 18-year-old son, Patrick—has profoundly shaped my approach. I support clients in navigating grief and trauma with compassion and resilience, helping them rebuild identity, find meaning, and unlock transformative growth.
I offer personalized coaching, grief workshops, and speaking engagements focused on emotional healing, resilience building, and purposeful living. My work integrates practical strategy with deep emotional and spiritual insight, empowering those ready to shift perspective and step into their next chapter.
If you’re seeking support in grief recovery, resilience coaching, or transformational growth, I create safe spaces for healing, self-compassion, and authentic transformation.
My Journey
From Lawyer to Consultant & Coach
In 2008 Laurel pivoted from a 12-year career as an environmental public interest lawyer to become the Vice President for Policy at the Donors Forum and a champion for changing the Illinois nonprofit and philanthropic sector. For five years Laurel raised millions of dollars while leading multiple state and national initiatives to empower nonprofits and engage philanthropy at a deeper level in public advocacy.
In 2013, Laurel started the Advocacy Collaborative. For the next four years, she pioneered her AdvocacyForward approach teaching and training thousands of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders on how to use their voices for greater impact in the public arena as well as consulting to nonprofit organizations on how to integrate advocacy as a leadership streategy.
ln 2018, Laurel’s desire to go deeper in working with individual leaders led her to add coaching and advising social impact leaders and entrepreneurs interested in changing the world to her practice.
My Process
Laurel digs deep and inspires all her clients, to find their mission and their truth, overcome their fears and advocate for the change they are seeking from a place of clarity, deeper meaning and greater purpose and impact. She does this by diving deep into understanding their unique contribution or source of power, along with any obstacles from the past that are impeding their progress while surfacing their best opportunities to create the change they are seeking. She synthesizes all this information to create a roadmap or plan for each client to achieve their goals with maximum impact. To each engagement, Laurel brings deep professional knowledge about what it takes to create lasting change as well as an intuitive and empathetic approach based on her personal and professional experience navigating transitions.