I’m alex prussin (they/them), a grief & loss coach that provides a safe and brave space to help individuals navigate loss and cultivate healing.
About Me
Why grief & loss work
My love and fulfillment of supporting others through grief and loss became clear to me very early on in my career through my work at Planned Parenthood. The honor of someone allowing me to hold them in their pain was beyond words. Since then, I have sought a way to continue offering that support, eventually finding my path in grief coaching.
Grief has been a constant throughout my life, through different losses in my own life and losses experienced by those around me. Each experience deepened my understanding of grief's physical and emotional dimensions, naturally drawing me to become a steady source of support for those around me.
In 2015, my father passed away after years of illness. This loss reinforced for me the profound need for connection and being held in grief. This loss was devastating and strengthened my understanding that grief truly shows up in unforeseen waves, each unique and often unexpected.
Shortly after losing my dad, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. This diagnosis gave a name to the literal energy vampire that had been living in my body for years, leaving me physically and mentally limited in ways that have completely changed my life. Accepting this loss of health remains a constant wave I navigate throughout my life.
I believe loss of any kind – community, an important being in your life, home (physical, emotional and/or spiritual), career (chosen and not chosen), or connection – can profoundly reshape you. Grief is deeply personal, shaped by your identities and culture(s). What sustains us is support: someone to hold you and hold space for you to allow the grief in, instead of pushing it away. As a friend recently said, “Grief will have her way with you.” I am here so you are not alone when you let her in. I am here so you are not alone as you learn what she has to teach.
How did I get here
At Planned Parenthood, I had the privilege of supporting people through varied losses, a role that revealed my capacity to be a centered presence for those experiencing grief and loss. As an operations and people leader in healthcare, I witnessed loss and trauma manifest in colleagues, patients, families, and workplace dynamics, a reality intensified by the pandemic’s collective grief. Colleagues have described my support as "buddha-like," noting my calm and grounded nature during difficult times. These experiences confirmed my ability to hold space for those navigating grief and loss.
For the last 5 years, I have also taught aerial dance. In this space I am a witness to loss that can be invisible to many: physical injury changing ability, anticipation and reality not matching, and change within the aerial dance community itself. Loss appears in many different places and ways in our lives and this grief has a lasting impact.
I was born in San Francisco, California to a German mother and Jewish father. My sense of identity and home has always been complex and spread across the globe. I am a queer and gender non-conforming leader, teacher, coach, caregiver, and human. My superpower is holding others within my heart and within my wings.