Meet Lou Hynes
Global Grief Educator, Keynote Speaker and 1:1 Grief Support Specialist. Helping individuals, organisations and audiences create a more grief literate world.
I turned the most painful chapter of my life into a mission for change.
In December 2022, my husband Pete went to bed with an earache and never woke up. Less than 48 hours later he was gone – taken by bacterial meningitis at just 40 years old. My world imploded. I was widowed overnight, and left raising three grieving children in the wake of unimaginable loss.
I was surrounded by people who cared (initially at least). But nobody really knew what to do. Some avoided me. Some tried too hard. Most were simply terrified of saying the wrong thing. And I didn’t have the energy to tell them what I needed. I didn’t even know what I needed.
Like so many others, I bottled it up. I powered through the funeral, the house renovations, the school runs, the milestones. But 15 months later, on Mother’s Day weekend, I couldn’t get out of bed. My body said no more. It was my wake-up call. I finally let the grief in.
From there, I did the work. I sought answers. I trained in grief education therapy. I immersed myself in the neuroscience and psychology of grief. I used every tool I had from coaching, clinical hypnotherapy and life experience to build a way forward.
And now, I help others do the same.
What makes this work different?
Grief isn’t just sadness. It’s brain fog. It’s isolation. It’s rage. It’s exhaustion. It’s the shock of a world that keeps turning when yours has stopped.
But as a society, we’re not taught how to grieve. We’re taught to stay strong, stay quiet, and stay in control.
Through Lou Hynes Coaching, I help individuals gently unpack the emotional weight of loss through a structured 1-1 grief support programme. I teach organisations how to support bereaved employees and create truly compassionate cultures. I deliver keynote talks that spark conversations and bring this often-avoided topic into the light.
Everything I do is built around one belief:
We all need to get better at grief.
Here are some other things you should know about me…
In Human Design I’m a 5/2 Self-projected Projector with a defined throat and G Centre (IKYKY). I’m basically born to do what I do!
Early in my consumer insight career, I was presenting to a senior audience, and thinking I’d written ‘discount’ on the chart, imagine my horror when I clicked on to it and there, in a big bold header was the word ‘disco c*nt’!!!
I’m a classically trained singer and have sung everything from the solo in Handel’s Messiah to Roxie Hart’s ‘Roxie’ (don’t ask about the time my friend and I BOTH started on the completely wrong note in Pie Jesu)
I lived in France for a year as part of my degree and eventually began dreaming in French and even forgot English words sometimes - such a strange phenomena!
I’m an eternal optimist who still believes in the magic of glimmers. I also know Pete is beside me in everything I do.
