Consulting with PAUSE

Policy. Practice. Culture.

Grief doesn’t clock in and out - and your workplace policies shouldn’t pretend it does.

At PAUSE, we offer consulting services that help your organization create culturally competent, trauma-informed, and human-centered practices around grief and end-of-life.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining what’s already in place, we’re here to help you build a workplace that honors the realities of bereavement with care and accountability.

Our consulting services

Over 50% of employees will experience a significant loss during their working years. But most workplaces aren’t prepared to respond with the flexibility and humanity grief requires—especially for BIPOC, queer, and disabled workers who already navigate disproportionate harm.

We believe it’s time to PAUSE for grief at work. And we are excited to work with you and your team on unique changes to your policy, response, and culture that’ll better care for your workforce.

🧑‍💻 Bereavement Policy Audits

We evaluate your existing bereavement, leave, and related workplace policies through an equity and inclusion lens. You’ll receive a detailed audit report with:

  • Strengths and gaps in current language and coverage

  • Alignment with industry trends and best practices

  • Recommendations for inclusive, trauma-informed updates (including but not limited to customized resource lists and training materials)

⭐ Bereavement response development

If your workplace is ready to go beyond the legal minimum (or curious about how you can better support folks without formal policy updates) we’ll work with you to develop or co-create a bereavement policy and response that:

  • Reflect the full spectrum of grief experiences

  • Recognize loss across cultures, relationships, and roles

  • Address timelines, communication, and support systems

  • Honor your company’s capacity, boundaries, and needs

💸 Onboarding Material Development

Grief-aware workplaces introduce care from day one. We help integrate bereavement and loss support into your onboarding process through:

  • Customized employee handbook language

  • Manager talking points and training touchpoints

  • Customized onboarding activities and training materials

  • Resources that signal trust, safety, and readiness to support

🫂 Creating & holding space

We work with your team to create and hold space for the many experiences folks have with grief, end-of-life, and caregiving while working. You can explore more concrete examples below, but a few general ways we work with teams include:

  • Informational sessions (workshops, webinars, etc.) for ERGs, management teams, or unique groups of employees within your organization

  • Processing groups (one-off or ongoing), peer support groups, or other types of supportive community-based groups

  • Customized experiences to support your employees in a unique learning OR community-based activity

A few examples: How we can support your team

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

  • An interactive and informative workshop for workplaces interested in helping their employees answer the question, “What is grief?”

    Format:

    This workshop is great for:

    Attendees will walk away with:

    Leadership will walk away with:

Book a 30-minute free consultation to discuss what we can build together.

What people are saying

  • Alica was full of facts as well as anecdotal information for her presentation. She is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about this topic. My only regret is not having more time with her to learn, explore, and discuss solutions.

    ~ “Grief, Death, and Intersectionality” Workshop Attendee

  • Alica was an incredible educator and speaker on how to support Communities of Color through grief and end of life. I’m still processing all I learned and have so much more work to do to understand the intersection of grief and race. As a LA resident it’s wonderful to know Alica and PAUSE are here to help support and be a resource. We can all work together to help those in need.

    ~ “Grief, Death, and Intersectionality” Workshop Attendee

  • PAUSE has shown me the potential of a dream and bringing together people dedicated to doing good. In a world that's felt at times hopeless as at least a lot overwhelming, the progress that PAUSE has been able to make...in dreaming, convening, and encouraging people to come together to build a more inclusive space for BIPOC people at the end of life...has planted seeds to change the world. Organizations like this one that are building the world we all deserve to live in.

    ~ Aubrey Blanche, Culture Amp

  • What’s been most inspiring about PAUSE is watching the growth of the organization which underscores the necessity of the work that we are doing. Finally, when faced with questions about how communities of color are supported in their grief, I have an organization I trust to point to. The work of PAUSE is imperative.

    ~ Alua Arthur, Going with Grace

Learn about the principal consultant

Alica Forneret, PAUSE Founder & Executive Director

“People shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around you…” 

“Everyone is always going through something… we can’t just take off days whenever we want.”

“This is where we come to do business… you need to check your dead mom at the door.”

These are all things I’ve heard directly from my past employers when talking about my grief. And to this day I still find these statements startling and disappointing. But they’re what fueled me to explore how grief and death are handled in the workplace. And more importantly - how everyone can handle them better.

For a decade, I’ve been navigating grief in the workplace - as a griever, an employer, and a consultant. My work has consistently focused on how we can support each other through death-related loss and the grief sparked by (and before) end-of-life experiences. Fiercely committed to making sure that our conversations about grief, death, and dying go beyond hospital rooms and funeral homes, I am excited to contribute to how we handle grief in the workplace, in our personal relationships, publicly, and very specifically, the grieving process for People of Color and diverse identities.

I’ve consulted on product development and systems change to help companies create resources and tools for grieving communities. I facilitate sessions focused on inclusive bereavement responses and how to address grief at work for companies including Google, Culture Amp, Nielsen, and The California Department of Education. And I have partners on international projects with The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, Columbia University, and lululemon. I am a member of ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), C-TAC (Coalition to Transform Advance Care Planning), SAGE (Advocacy for LGBTQ* Elders), BHN (Black Health Network).

I’ve been in the shoes of the employer and the employee - and am excited to bring this work into the world to support both!