People love the messages they're getting from Help Texts

"The text messages help us navigate our grief."

— 4 Grief Coach subscribers share their experience

My sister in law lost her husband 2 years ago and a friend gave her a subscription to Help Texts. She found it really helpful, so when my sister died she bought a subscription for me. We both love it and look forward to our text messages on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Thank you for creating this incredibly helpful and informative tool. I just can’t say enough positive things about it!"

Gillian, Help Texts subscriber

I found Help Texts on Instagram after my sister died. I've renewed my subscription twice since then, and find the personalized texts incredibly helpful. I really like that text messages come directly to me, and give me a reason to pause and think about Sarah and how I'm feeling. I also included Sarah's best friend in my subscription. She finds the subscription just as helpful as I do and always asks to be included each time I renew.

Ann Kaufman, Help Texts subscriber

Losing my Dad turned my life upside down. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to handle my emotions. When other people forgot that I was grieving, Help Texts helped me understand this journey I'm on, and that it's okay to feel all the emotions I was feeling. With texts specifically for me and the loss of my Dad, I felt a sense of comfort. I was also able to add my husband to the service so that he could better understand what I was going through and how to help me. We were able to have open conversations about grief. I wasn't in this alone, and all of my feelings were valid.

Sarah Khatau, Help Texts subscriber

"I love that my messages are personalized."

— Lori and Lisa

There is nothing that helps you prepare your 23-year-old daughter to be a pallbearer for her best friend, and then subsequently grieve that loss. Enter Help Texts. It was an incredible service that had a powerful and positive impact on how I could understand and actually help my daughter. Thank you for this service. I hope to never need you again but I continue to recommend you to friends and you will be my first stop should I need grief guidance again.

Fiona, Help Texts subscriber

I bought a Help Texts subscription for my aunt when her husband died last year. I was feeling sad for her and frustrated not knowing what I could do from a distance. I was so happy when I heard back from her that she’d used it and found the texts to be a great help. It feels so much better knowing you are offering someone something thoughtful and helpful during a difficult time.

Gardner Congdon, gift subscription purchaser

"The text messages are helping me support our friends, whose baby passed away."

— Jesse

Help Texts texts really helped normalize the grieving experience. As a newly grieving person, I was looking everywhere for the algorithm or "key" to how long this would last or what I would experience. Help Texts helped me stop obsessing about what the itinerary was going to be and to just experience my experience. I also loved that it was a year of text support because people tend to stop checking in after about 2 months. So so helpful. Thank you so much for developing Help Texts.

Tomi, Help Texts subscriber

Help Texts has helped me realize that I am not alone and that my feelings are normal. The text messages give me advice and help that I can’t normally get at my age, from friends or adults. I feel like the texts are a special thing for me to look at when I really need them. They help me discover myself and my feelings after the loss of my mom. Help being a text message away is one of the best things that has been given to me, to work through my grief.

Renee, 17-year old Help Texts subscriber

Help Texts is excellent. Both my daughter and I get weekly texts—hers focused on grief and the grieving process and mine are written to help me support her. We both find them very supportive and reassuring which I find quite surprising coming from a faceless source. The messages are personalized using everyone’s given name which I really like. I particularly like the fact that I can access the messages on my mobile and dip in and out wherever I am—waiting at the hairdressers, sitting in a cafe etc. It feels like the author has their arm around me.

UK Grandma, Help Texts subscriber

Help Texts subscriptions truly are the gift that keeps on giving. I've seen first-hand how their thoughtful, timely texts to grievers (AND the great tips they send to friends and family) can absolutely transform the grief experience for people.

Gina Kornfeind, Bereavement Coordinator at Mattel UCLA Children's Hospital

The texting capabilities provided by Help Texts are particularly meaningful during the COVID crisis, a time when many of the more traditional ways of providing in-person grief support are on hold. Our bereavement team now has the ability to offer personalized, text-based support to the thousands of hospice families we care for each year. This service adds a valuable new communications channel to the care we currently provide.

Bill Finn, President and CEO, Hospice of the Western Reserve

Help Texts has helped my husband be more aware of what I might be feeling, and understand why things are affecting me. The messages are helping me, and also helping him to be patient and understand that grief is a long process.

Rachel, Help Texts subscriber

I’ve been doing this work for a long time, and I know the challenges that hospices and other organizations face in needing to support thousands of grieving families. It’s wonderful that these caring, well-timed personal messages can now go out to all of our families. Subscribers can add in their friends and family, too. Help Texts gives our bereavement coordinators a way to ensure that none of our family members have to grieve alone.

Diane Synder-Cowan, Bereavement Professionals Section Leader, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

My friend's daughter just died unexpectedly. Even though I work in traumatic grief and death, this is one time I needed guidance. The Help Texts messaging program is exactly what I needed, and has helped me to support my friend. This is a game changer for helping us to help others as they grieve.

Jessica Dale, MSN, DNPc, CCFP, CTP, Wisconsin, USA

"Help Texts has helped the people around me to understand what I need."

— Rachel

One of the things I love about Help Texts is that it’s non-invasive. My team can be in regular touch with the families we support, without it being awkward. I am also glad that we can customize some of the text messages, so that they come specifically from our hospice.

Zeena Regis, MDiv. Hospice Bereavement Coordinator, Georgia, USA

"I love that Grief Coach teaches my friends how to support me."

— Sarah

The text messages I receive make me feel as if someone I trust—someone who has gone through this themselves—is speaking directly to me. It’s not generic. The messages are personal and thoughtful; they help me to process my grief and keep my Dad in my heart.

Candice Smith, Help Texts subscriber

My clients talk to me all the time, about the lack of help and understanding they get from friends and family. If the people closest to them felt more comfortable and confident providing support, I think it would go a long way to helping my clients manage the depression and isolation that too often accompany grief.

Lisa Bancroft, Therapist. MSW, LICSW.

I'm supporting my Mom who is 3000 miles away. The Help Texts messages are helping me connect with her and understand the grieving process that she's been doing through, even though I'm not there to experience it first hand.

Julie, Help Texts subscriber

Texting grief support to grievers AND texting tips and resources to their circle of friends is one of the best things ever. Seriously! Help Texts will change bereavement and healthcare. I'm walking proof.

Bonnie Bizzell, Patient and Family Advocate

My wife added me to her Help Texts subscription, when our close friends lost their baby. I'd never lost someone close to me before so wasn't sure how to help. The Help Texts messages have been invaluable in helping me understand what our friends are experiencing, and suggesting ways that I could help them in a way they needed, but didn't know how to ask for.

Jesse, Help Texts subscriber

I am a skeptic by nature, but after seeing how Help Texts provides support after sudden, traumatic deaths like suicide, homicide, heart attacks, and aneurisms, I immediately sensed the invaluable service that could be offered to organ, eye, and tissue donor families. I love that the texts are non-invasive and save valuable staff time and print/postage costs too.

Michelle A. Post, MA, LMFT, CTBS, Board of Governors & Chair of Donor Family Services Council for American Association of Tissue Banks

"The messages have been incredibly encouraging, and really supportive."

— Rebecca

What an awesome idea. I wish someone had bought this for my sister, when my husband died by suicide. I know she wanted to help, but she really didn't know how, and it hurt.

Janae Sharp, young widow

I've been using Help Texts for a few months, and the text messages that come through couldn't be more thoughtful, hopeful and encouraging. I've also added a few people to my subscription, who wanted to support me after the loss of my Dad, and they tell me the messages they've received have given them practical suggestions about ways to reach out to me.

Fran Solomon, Founder & CEO, HealGrief.org

When my wife's dad died it was really hard to know the depth of her pain. I wasn't sure if I should bring him up and tried to support her the best I could. She found Help Texts and added me as her support person to receive texts. One of the suggestions was to take her to restaurants that her dad loved and to continue to honor him by doing, eating and watching his favorite things. We did just that. Now on every special occasion, like his birthday, it's become a sentimental tradition we find comfort in, to do things he enjoyed. The texts helped me better communicate with her and have more open conversations about her grief.

Krishan Tailor, Help Texts subscriber

I was gifted Help Texts after my father died, and I've gifted it to many others now, especially men. There's a stigma around male grief. With Help Texts, you can ponder the messages on your own time without the pressure of grieving in front of others. It feels like a private, personal consult for your grief.

Mark Busse, Help Texts subscriber

Help Texts has been my go-to gift when someone loses a loved one. Grief is always with us and the support from Help Texts makes the journey just a little bit easier to bear. My friend whose beloved mother died unexpectedly was worried the texts would be intrusive, but instead she said the texts are like a light feather that taps her on the shoulder and tells her it's OK.

Maureen Kures, End of Life Planning Consultant

Thank you for being the support I didn't know I needed. I think I would have felt so alone and inept if I didn't have this education/support. I have given this info to my friends and family and encouraged them to join. Thank you again. You are very valuable.

Nicole Tierney, Help Texts subscriber

When you are doing okay, you forget that your grief needs attention. These texts helped remind me to make time for my grief and nephew.

Susan, Bereavement Coordinator, Hospice of the Western Reserve

Friends and family want to provide support but they don’t always know how to do it. Help Texts provides easily accessible grief support via text to those who have suffered a loss AND their support network. Help Texts is there to help them. As a widow myself, Help Texts has been an instrumental part of my grief support.

Jody LaVoie, life coach for widows and cancer survivors

One thing I love about Help Texts is how it provides the family and friends of the grieving person with insights, tips, and valuable information on how to help when many do not know what to do or how to to help. Help Texts also provides support without grievers needing to go out and find it themselves. Texts come to them. Especially for men, who may want more support but don't get it because of social stigma surrounding grief, that is so important.

Joe Gatlin, founder, Grieving Dads Project

Help Texts not only provides me—the griever—with support, but it also sends those closest to me reminders and suggestions on how to show up during my grieving process. Without anyone feeling bombarded with messages, we are all given gentle nudges and caring lifts. Help Texts is especially great for those who might not be sure what to say or do and for grievers who might be wondering if what they're feeling is 'normal.'

Amy Bishop, end-of-life doula

I love how Help Texts offers ongoing, personalized, and accessible text-based guidance to both grievers and their support network in a way that normalizes grief as part of the experience of being a human being. Life is hard, and in the midst of the pain, it is vital to know we are not alone.