Community Highlights: Meet Diana Camba of Diana Camba Coaching, Loss and Grief Transformation with Diana Camba

Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Camba.

Diana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story began when I was six years old. May 29, 1965, my father’s birthday. We were driving up to Visalia in our blue VW Bug, all three of us girls squeezed into the back seat, talking excitedly about seeing my dad’s brother’s and our grandmothers. Little did we know that our Uncle Paul had just died in a terrible car accident.

When our parents told us, they asked if we wanted to go to the funeral or stay with relatives. All three of us wanted to go. We wanted to say goodbye to Uncle Paul.

The mortuary was so kind to us. They took great care to make Uncle Paul look peaceful so we could see him one last time. That experience changed me. I became deeply curious about death and grief. I kept asking questions, so many questions that every Saturday, my dad and I started going to the local mortuary to learn more. John Mies, became our mentor.

But three years later, I learned something else about grief. Something darker.

When I was nine, my best friend Michele Parker was murdered. She was eight. She never made it to her ninth birthday. And no one talked about it. No one gave me permission to grieve. I was not allowed to go to her funeral. No one acknowledged what had been taken from me, from her family, and our community.

That silence taught me something dangerous: it taught me that some losses are too uncomfortable for the world to hold. That some grief is invisible, even when it is devastating.

Those two losses before I turned ten, Uncle Paul and Michele, shaped everything that came after. The 30+ years I spent serving over 1,000 families in funeral services. The Saturday mornings with my dad, learning this sacred work. Living above the mortuary when I was in high school. And now, this calling to work specifically with invisible grief.

Because here is what I know after all these years of bearing witness to grief: every loss deserves to be seen.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it has not been a smooth road. But the obstacles have shaped everything I do now.

My journey with loss began early. In between the death of Uncle Paul, and the murder of Michele, on May 22, 1968, there was a helicopter going from Disneyland to LAX that crashed in a cow pasture near my elementary school, in Paramount.

These three tragic losses were the start of my training for my future. In addition, I moved 24 times, attended seven different schools, and later, divorce and job loss, I learned that not all grief receives recognition. Some losses, like identity shifts, lost friendships, and constant relocation, are invisible. No one sends sympathy cards or brings casseroles for those.

Those experiences led me to over 30 years of working in funeral homes and cemeteries, where I served more than 1,000 families. I learned to hold space for their grief while carrying my own unacknowledged losses.

In 2025, I retired and launched Loss and Grief Transformation: With Diana Camba. That transition itself was an obstacle, as I walked away from a professional identity I had held for three decades and built a business from the ground up. I have had to learn new systems, marketing, technology, and how to educate a market that does not yet understand what invisible grief is.

The greatest challenge has been the vulnerability required to put my own story at the center of this work. But every obstacle has prepared me for this exact mission: helping others transform their invisible grief into purposeful becoming.
The road has not been smooth, but I would not change it. Uncle Paul shaped my life, my calling, my work. He is part of why I am where I am today.

Michele, I was not allowed to attend her funeral, no ritual to hold, no permission to grieve; she, too, has shaped my calling. She is why I believe every loss deserves to be seen, why I specialize in invisible grief, and why I create space for the losses the world wants to forget.

This is especially important with invisible grief. Because if the world would not acknowledge your loss, the world would certainly not give you permission to remember it, to honor it, to keep it alive in your heart.

But you don’t need permission. You can give that to yourself.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Diana Camba Coaching, Loss and Grief Transformation with Diana Camba?
Diana Camba Coaching, a.k.a. Loss and Grief Transformation: With Diana Camba, is a grief coaching practice specializing in “invisible grief”, the overlooked losses that do not come with casseroles or sympathy cards. I work with people navigating divorce, empty nest syndrome, miscarriage, chronic illness, career transitions, identity shifts, and other losses that society tells them do not count as “real” grief. My mission is simple: every loss deserves to be seen.

What sets me apart is the intersection of professional expertise and lived experience. After 30 years as a funeral director serving over 1,000 families, I retired in 2025 to focus entirely on this work. I bring decades of holding space for grief, combined with my own journey through childhood losses, 24 moves, seven schools, divorce, and the ongoing navigation of invisible grief. I am not theorizing about loss; I have lived it and professionally witnessed it for three decades.

My signature methodology is The Seasons of Healing™ framework, which guides clients through four non-linear phases: Winter (Name the Unseen – The Season of Honest Recognition), Spring (Honor with Ritual – The Season of Sacred Ceremony), Summer (Reclaim Yourself – The Season of Authentic Renewal), and Autumn (Live the Legacy – The Season of Purposeful Integration). Unlike traditional grief models that focus on “stages” or “getting over” loss, my approach honors that healing means learning to carry love in new ways, not leaving it behind.

I offer three core programs: The Seasons of Healing Clarity Intensive (a 30-Day Personalized Healing Roadmap VIP Experience), The Complete Seasonal Journey (a 4-Month journey to navigate all four seasons of healing with personalized guidance and community support), and The Accountability Partnership for Transformation (a 12-Month, from grief to awakening, sacred partnership for profound transformation.)

I also facilitate BE SEEN Workshops, a unique collaboration combining grief education with therapeutic art sessions, currently running at Zen of the Valley Retreat Center through December.

What I am most proud of, brand-wise, is the language we have created around invisible grief. My tagline, “You’re Not Broken, You’re Becoming,” reframes grief from pathology to transformation. It gives people permission to grieve losses that society dismisses while honoring the profound identity work that happens after loss. The phrase “Loss or Grief Changes Everything. Who Am I Now?” captures the exact question my clients are asking, often for the first time out loud.

I want readers to know that if they are carrying grief that no one else seems to understand, if they have been told to move on, be grateful, or that it was not a big deal, this work is for them. Michele Parker, my childhood best friend who was murdered two weeks before her 9th birthday, is why I do this. Her loss taught me that some grief changes everything, and that every loss, visible or invisible, deserves sacred companionship. That is what I offer: witnessed healing, ritual creation, and the transformation from invisible pain to purposeful becoming.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

Flourishing Code by Mynoo Maryel

How to Rewrit Reality by Shiraz

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cambacoaching.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DianaCamba.RediscoveringLifeAfterLoss/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianacamba/