History and Philosophy
Lori Churchill, LICSW has been a practicing social worker for over 35 years. Most recently she was creator and Director of Wellness Hub in Hubbardston, a holistic healing program specializing in grief and loss. In September 2023 Wellness Hub closed the yoga studio and Lori kept her private practice in the same location and maintains ownership of Wellness Hub LLC.
Lori specializes in therapy for complex grief using holistic approach. Why holistic? Holistic means we can focus on the whole being, body mind and spirit. We believe that grief and loss impact all parts of the self, not just how we feel. It impacts our physical body, our identity, our social world, our thoughts, our values, our spiritual selves, in addition to our feelings.
About Lori
Lori Churchill is a licensed clinical social worker, grief therapist and energy healer. Lori's experience has included many facets of mental health care, and for the last few decades has focused on grief support through individual, family and group therapy. She has worked with many types of grief/loss and has a deep reverence for the individual experience. She has found that trauma and loss often leave us unable to find the words to fully capture our experiences and has found that the whole of our selves, body mind and spirit, feel the impact of grief and loss. She has spent many years training to understand this, and has found that nervous system regulation is at the core of our physical and mental wellbeing and that this is particularly important in grief. She holds certifications in Grief Counseling and Child/Adolescent Grief Counseling, is a Reiki Master, and is a Certified Sound Healer. She offers EFT tapping, Reiki and Sound Healing to help restore balance in the nervous system in non verbal ways, typically offering these in addition to traditional talk therapy and regularly using breath work with clients. She has found that this holistic approach is most effective in bringing relief.
About Grief and Loss
We will all experience major losses during our lifetime, and sometimes they are too heavy to hold on our own. Lori can help you hold space for your loved one and your experience of living without them, so you can find a way to live more comfortably now that they are no longer here in physical form. Complex grief happens when losses are complicated, or adjustments after loss are complicated, or if we experience more than one loss and they pile up, becoming overwhelming.
Lori has extensive experience with complex grief and loss using a holistic approach.
Insurance may help with the cost of therapy, and while Lori doesn't work with insurance companies she can provide paperwork needed to apply for reimbursement if your plan allows for this. She also offers individually based sliding scale fees.
How Does Holistic Healing impact Grief Work?
Grief Impacts the Entire Self
We believe that the experience of grieving happens to more than just our feelings. Yes, certainly this brings up a huge array of feelings. And, in addition, grief impacts other areas of our lives. In the image here, you can see that it impacts our feelings, our thoughts, our social world, our identity, our physical body, our behavior, our values and our spiritual selves (spiritual doesn't mean religious, although our religious identities can be impacted as well). Lori uses this as a tool to help guide the work of processing the impact of grief and loss.
Holistic Healing
Holistic healing also refers to the modalities used in the work we do. Lori incorporates energy therapies and breath work into therapy, along with a continuous focus on how our bodies feel (eating, sleeping, exercise, nutrition, hydration, etc)., with the goal of maintaining balance of the whole system while doing the difficult work of grief therapy.