Invictus by Genna - Grief & Loss Services

A little author milestone worth celebrating! 🎉📚✨

I just submitted my second-ever copyright application for a book I wrote — and that sentence still feels a little surreal to say.

There is something incredibly meaningful about watching an idea move from notes, research, drafts, revisions, and countless hours of work into an actual finished book with my name on it.

Book #2 is officially one step closer to being out in the world. 💙

Feeling proud, grateful, and very excited for what comes next.

WritingJourney PublishedAuthor BookInProgress

It is National Grief Awareness Day.

Today, I’m thinking about the words people have entrusted to me in grief.

One griever said:
“When people stop saying their name, it feels like they disappear all over again.”

I’ve heard grief expressed in countless ways, but that sentence has stayed with me.

Grief is not only sadness. It can be longing, disorientation, anger, relief, love, exhaustion, memory, identity, loneliness, laughter, and the strange work of learning how to live in a world that has changed.

And grievers do not necessarily need us to find the right words or make their pain better.

Sometimes they need us to say the name.
To remember.
To ask about the person who died.
To listen to the story again.
To make room for both sorrow and joy.
To understand that continuing to grieve does not mean someone is failing to move forward.

National Grief Awareness Day is an opportunity to make grief a little less lonely—not by prescribing how someone should navigate it, but by becoming more willing to accompany them in it. That is the reason I formed Invictus by Genna and, by extension, The Compassionate Compass Grief Support Community. 

Presence over fixing.
Acknowledgment over avoidance.
Permission for grief to be named.

To everyone carrying someone or something they have lost: your grief does not need to look like anyone else’s to be worthy of space.

— Genna Reeves, Ph.D.
Invictus | Grief Education & Peer Grief Support

Invictus by Genna Reeves, Ph.D. | Grief & Loss Services

Invictus by Genna Reeves, Ph.D. | Grief & Loss Services

I’m so excited to finally introduce The Compassionate Compass: A Grief Support Community by Invictus.

The Compassionate Compass is being created as something more than a collection of support groups. It is a community for people living with loss—a place to find connection, education, peer support, meaningful experiences, remembrance, and opportunities simply to be with others who understand.

Through support groups, community gatherings, educational programs, creative experiences, shared meals, and spaces for remembrance, our hope is to create many different ways for people to feel supported after a death.

The compass is intentional. Grief does not come with a map, and there is no single course everyone is supposed to follow. We are not here to tell people where grief should take them. We are here to offer companionship, understanding, resources, and community as people find their own bearings.

This community is already beginning to take shape through the voices and ideas of the people who will be part of it, and I cannot wait to share what is coming next.

⚓ Support groups
🧭 Grief education
🌊 Community gatherings and connection
🎨 Creative and reflective experiences
🕯️ Remembrance
🤝 Peer support

The Compassionate Compass
A Grief Support Community by Invictus

Serving New Mexico and virtual communities.

Come as you are. There is no single way through grief. We’ll find our bearings together. Invictus by Genna Reeves, Ph.D. | Grief & Loss Services

I had the honor of joining Tony Lynch on the Grief: Let’s Talk About It livestream podcast for a thoughtful conversation about grief, support, and what it means to accompany people through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives.

We talked about what I’ve learned from working alongside grievers, the importance of belonging and being witnessed, and why grief support isn’t about giving someone the “right” answers—it’s about creating space for the many ways grief can be carried, expressed, and understood.

I’m deeply grateful to Tony for the invitation, the conversation, and the warm hospitality. Thank you for creating a space where grief can be spoken about openly and honestly.

 Watch the recording on YouTube: Grief: Let’s Talk About It with Tony Lynch



Or use this link to watch: tinyurl.com/3pxcfscr

Invictus by Genna - Grief & Loss Services

Tomorrow I’ll be joining Tony Lynch live on his livestream podcast, Grief Let’s Talk About It! I'm joining him for a conversation about grief, support, connection, and what I’ve learned from walking alongside people through loss.

I’m looking forward to talking about the work that means so much to me.

And because it’s a livestream, you’re invited to join us in real time! 💙

📺 Sunday, August 16, 1pm MT
🎙️ Grief Let’s Talk About It with Tony Lynch
▶️ Watch on YouTube at or access at this link https://www.youtube.com/live/6LNLIO37M-0?si=UTWOYw8tz9KWiiPg

You can use the link or scan the QR code in the images to join.

Grief deserves conversation. And none of us should have to carry it entirely alone.

Tony o lynch
Grief lets talk about it podcast

Tomorrow I’ll be joining Tony Lynch live on his livestream podcast, Grief Let’s Talk About It! I'm joining him for a conversation about grief, support, connection, and what I’ve learned from walking alongside people through loss.

I’m looking forward to talking about the work that means so much to me.And because it’s a livestream, you’re invited to join us in real time! 💙

📺 Sunday, August 16, 1pm MT
🎙️ Grief Let’s Talk About It with Tony Lynch
▶️ Watch on YouTube at or access at this link https://www.youtube.com/live/6LNLIO37M-0?si=UTWOYw8tz9KWiiPg

(And if you miss the livestream, you can still watch it later.)

You can use the link or scan the QR code in the images to join.
Grief deserves conversation. And none of us should have to carry it entirely alone.

✨ What does it really mean to be influential? ✨

In this short video for Influential Women, I reflect on community, curiosity, lifelong learning, and some of the lessons I would offer to women entering grief support and end-of-life work. Trust that your experiences have value. Lead with humility and presence. Keep learning, build strong relationships, and never underestimate the difference you can make simply by helping another person feel understood.

And perhaps most importantly:
“Find your tribe, and who it turns out to be may surprise you. It may not be who you expect.”

The people who recognize us, encourage us, and help us grow sometimes arrive from the most unexpected places—and that is part of what makes community so powerful.

View the video here: https://vimeo.com/1214071878/181c55c887

Genna Reeves for Bold. Brilliant. Unstoppable. Video testimonial: Genna Reeves for Bold. Brilliant. Unstoppable.

In my newest Invictus by Genna Reeves, Ph.D. | Grief & Loss Services blog post, I discuss how grief changes more than how we feel—it can change how we experience time itself.

After loss, time may seem to stand still, move too quickly, or divide life into a permanent before and after. The calendar continues forward, but our minds and bodies may need much longer to absorb what has happened. There is no universal timeline for that process.

At Ed Sheeran’s July 4 concert, his reflections on grief offered a powerful way of thinking about this relationship between loss and time. In my newest blog post, I explore what his words reveal about the uneven pace of grieving—and why healing cannot be measured by how many days, months, or years have passed.

Read the full blog post here:
https://www.invictusbygenna.com/post/when-grief-changes-time-ed-sheeran-concert


Ed Sheeran

I finished a book manuscript. (1 of 2 in progress!)

"The Ship We Keep Boarding: Titanic, Fashion, Film, and the Objects That Make History Human" began as my doctoral dissertation and has become a way of thinking about why certain histories continue to hold us—and how clothing, film, artifacts, memory, and material culture can bring the past and memorialization closer to us.

Finishing a book requires more than having an idea. It requires returning to the page again and again, following unexpected threads, questioning what belongs, and staying with the work long enough for it to become what it was meant to be.

There is still more work ahead: revision, editing, and the process of helping it find its place in the world. But today, I am pausing to recognize the milestone. 🎉 Invictus by Genna Reeves, Ph.D. | Grief & Loss Services