Host Dave Roberts introduces the Teaching Journeys podcast and interviews grief coach Sylvia Wolfer, who works at the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and movement, including Pilates. Wolfer shares a lifelong history of sudden losses—her father when she was seven, a younger brother at 17, an older brother in 2019, and later her mother—and describes carrying “unattended grief,” marked by outward functioning but internal bracing, triggers, Sleep and digestive disruption, fatigue, and brain fog. She explains how grief is stored in the body and how “nailing the basics” (hydration, real food, sleep routine, daylight, breathing, and movement) can help regulate the nervous system before deeper emotional work. Wolfer also outlines a neuroscience view of grief as the brain recalibrating its map of time and space while closeness endures, emphasizing patience, sibling grief, and regaining agency so grief doesn’t “run the show.”
Sylvia’s Bio and Contact Information
Sylvia Wolfer is a grief coach working at the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and movement. Her work is shaped by both professional training and lived experience, having lost both parents and two brothers over the course of her life.
After years of trying to “move forward” through grief using conventional approaches, it was the science of the brain and body that gave her a different kind of understanding — one that helped her regain a sense of stability and agency when everything felt disorienting. Alongside this, her long-standing practice of Pilates became a powerful anchor, helping her reconnect with her body and find a sense of steadiness from within.
Today, Sylvia helps people who are outwardly functioning but internally struggling after loss to understand what grief is doing to their brain and nervous system, and to regain agency and rebuild capacity.
Her work combines research-backed insights with a deeply human approach, offering digital courses, 1:1 support, and guided practices that meet people where they are.
Links
Website: https://sylviawolfer.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/_sylvia_wolfer_grief_support/
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviawolfer/
To find out more about Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com
