Karla Helbert

Karla Helbert, LPC, C-IAYT, is a professional counselor, yoga therapist, Compassionate Bereavement Care® provider, and award-winning author of multiple books. Her life was forever changed after her son died of a brain tumor in 2006.

Karla’s therapy practice has a focus on loss, grief and bereavement, working in particular with those affected by trauma and traumatic death. She leads classes, workshops and retreats for the bereaved as well as trainings for professionals on how to work with those impacted by traumatic grief.

Karla’s award-winning book Yoga for Grief and Loss is endorsed and used as a teaching tool by leaders, teachers and experts in the fields of yoga, grief and loss.

She is also the author of Finding Your Own Way to Grieve: A Creative Activity Workbook for Kids and Teens on the Autism Spectrum, the 2013 recipient of the Gold Medal for books in the category of Grief/Death & Dying from Independent Publishers.

Her newest book The Chakras in Grief and Trauma: A Tantric Guide to Energetic Wholeness focuses on the seven main chakras, from Root to Crown. Each chapter holds useful, insightful information about the function of that chakra and ways that chakra is likely to react through experiences of grief and trauma.

Relying on the teachings of yoga, on ritual, meditation, and creative expression, Karla honors the pain and the joy which coexist in all of life. Seeking to remain as aware and present as possible to all of life, she sees grief, her own as well as that of others, as both a learning and a growth process. All of her practice, writings, and teachings are based in these principles. She lives and works in Richmond VA with her husband and their daughter.