Case Study: Uncloaking The Leadership of a Grief Mentoring Program
Client: Therese Charvet
The Situation
Therese, founder of a long-established program offering grief retreats and facilitator mentoring, recognized that while the work itself was deeply transformative, the organizational structure behind it had become murky. Leadership dynamics were unclear, team roles were undefined, and unspoken conflicts were silently shaping major decisions. After years of intuitive and heart-centered leadership, the program had reached a growth point that required a clearer, more sustainable foundation.
The Challenge
As the founding leader, Therese faced a common yet complex issue: how to evolve her leadership model without fracturing the relational trust and emotional legacy the program had been built upon. Years of supposedly non-hierarchical leadership had created an atmosphere where power was real but unspoken. This made succession planning, role clarity, and sustainable growth almost impossible.
Therese needed a process that would allow her to:
- Articulate her true leadership desires and boundaries
- Address hidden patterns that kept the structure vague and emotionally overburdened
- Create a clear, grounded leadership proposal for the future without alienating long-term collaborators
The Solution
Through a multi-phase consulting process, we:
- Facilitated a structured reflection process that helped Therese explore both conscious and unconscious leadership patterns
- Used AI to compassionately audit for cognitive blindspots and structural ambiguity
- Delivered a multi-part diagnostic including a synthesis of her current situation, an archetypal analysis of leadership patterns with somatic practices, and a detailed set of next steps for embodied leadership clarity
- Created practical tools such as a leadership vision template, role description templates, boundary-setting scripts, and a contingency plan for navigating emotional reactions within the team
This work didn’t just offer strategic advice. It helped Therese reclaim her rightful leadership stance in a way that honored her relational values while freeing her from old entanglements.
The Outcome
Within 48 hours of receiving the final phase of the document, Therese held a conversation with a long-time collaborator and experienced an immediate shift. The unspoken power dynamics dissolved without conflict. This paved the way for her to move forward with defining new leadership roles, clarifying team expectations, and designing a sustainable structure for future cohorts of the grief mentoring program.
More importantly, this work seeded a broader transformation in how Therese views all of her leadership… no longer from a place of relational management, but from sovereign, embodied clarity.
Client Feedback
“This process completely changed how I see my own leadership. For years I was leading from intuition and care, but I didn’t realize how much energy was leaking through unspoken expectations and unclear structures.
Ariel’s support helped me reclaim my leadership with deep integrity… not by becoming someone else, but by finally letting myself name the truth I already knew. With the support of this process, I’m mastering powerful new leadership skills at 75 years old!”
-Therese Charvet, Founder of Sacred Groves
Key Takeaways
- Organizational clarity is an act of care… for yourself, your mission, and your team
- Founders can honor relational history without sacrificing structural sustainability
- Sometimes the biggest leadership shifts happen before a single external decision is made, through internal clarity and aligned action