Meet Paula Testa of Intentional Healing Pathways, LLC Grief Coach/Parts Work Therapist

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Testa.

Hi Paula, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story really began long before I realized I was on a healing journey.

I’ve always been a caregiver. I’m a wife, a mother of three, and for most of my life, I was the person who took care of everyone else. I learned very young how to be strong, responsible, and capable. I became the one who handled things, advocated for people, and kept going—even when life was incredibly hard.

About ten years ago, my life was cracked wide open by unimaginable trauma and loss. I experienced something that changed me at my core, and suddenly, all of the ways I had learned to survive weren’t working anymore. I was dealing with grief, anxiety, anger, fear, and a completely dysregulated nervous system. I remember reaching a point where I didn’t even know who I was anymore—or if I had ever truly known myself outside of taking care of everyone else.

As painful as that season was, it became the beginning of discovering me.

I started doing the deeper work—grief work, trauma work, nervous-system work, parts work, understanding generational patterns, learning boundaries, and recognizing the younger parts of myself that had spent decades trying to keep me safe.

And healing didn’t make my life perfect. Life continued to happen. There were more losses, more transitions, more moments that brought me to my knees. But I began meeting those experiences differently. Instead of abandoning myself to survive them, I learned how to stay connected to myself through them.

That changed everything.

It also completely changed the way I see grief. Grief isn’t only about death. We grieve relationships, marriages, friendships, our health, children growing up and leaving home, dreams that didn’t happen, versions of ourselves we’ve outgrown, and lives we thought we were going to have.

Today, I’ve turned that journey into Intentional Healing Pathways, where I walk alongside others navigating grief, trauma, life transitions, and the process of finding themselves again.

I don’t believe my purpose came despite everything I’ve been through. I believe, in many ways, it was revealed through it.

My life today is about helping people understand that healing isn’t about erasing the past or becoming who you used to be. It’s about discovering who you are now, learning to trust yourself and your body again, and realizing that even after tremendous loss, there is still so much life left to live.

That’s the work I’m passionate about, because I’ve lived it—and I’m still living it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road—and I think that’s one of the most important parts of my story.

There have been seasons of tremendous grief, trauma, loss, anxiety, anger, and complete exhaustion. There were times when I was so focused on surviving and taking care of everyone around me that I had completely lost connection with myself.

One of my biggest struggles was realizing that being “the strong one” had become part of my identity. I was the caregiver, the fixer, the advocate, the person everyone could count on. But underneath that strength were parts of me that were tired, scared, grieving, and desperately needing the same love and care I so freely gave to everyone else.

Healing required me to look at things I had carried for decades—generational patterns, childhood roles, people-pleasing, boundaries, resentment, grief, and the belief that my value somehow came from how much I could do for everyone else.

There were also very real losses along the way. I’ve experienced traumatic loss, walked alongside people I deeply love through illness and death, experienced changing family dynamics, and had seasons where life looked nothing like I thought it would. Each experience brought another layer of grief and another opportunity to either return to my old survival patterns or continue choosing myself and the work I had begun.

And I didn’t always choose perfectly. Sometimes I fell apart. Sometimes I got angry. Sometimes I wanted to run from the work altogether. Healing has taught me that those moments aren’t failures—they’re part of being human.

Probably one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that healing isn’t a destination. There wasn’t a magical day when I woke up and everything was fixed. It has been messy, beautiful, painful, freeing, and incredibly humbling.

Today, when life brings another difficult season, I have tools I didn’t have before. I understand my nervous system. I recognize my patterns. I listen to my body. I know how to sit with grief instead of immediately trying to fix it. And most importantly, I’ve learned how to offer myself the same grace, mercy, compassion, and love that I spent so many years giving to everyone else.

The road hasn’t been smooth, but every part of it has shaped the woman I am today—and it has given me an incredible amount of compassion for the people I now have the privilege of walking alongside.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Intentional Healing Pathways, LLC Grief Coach/Parts Work Therapist?
Intentional Healing Pathways was created from both my personal healing journey and my belief that people deserve a safe place to explore what has happened to them, how it has shaped them, and who they want to become moving forward.

My work focuses on grief, trauma, parts work, nervous-system awareness, life transitions, and helping people reconnect with themselves after experiences that have changed them.

One of the biggest things I want people to understand about my work is that grief is so much more than death.

We grieve divorce, estrangement, friendships that end, changes in our health, becoming an empty nester, losing a career, moving away from a life we knew, caring for aging parents, dreams that never happened, and even versions of ourselves we had to become in order to survive. Sometimes people are carrying tremendous grief without ever realizing that what they’re experiencing actually has a name.

That is a big part of what Intentional Healing Pathways is about—creating space for the grief and experiences that don’t always fit neatly into a traditional box.

I work one-on-one with clients, helping them understand their patterns, explore the different “parts” of themselves, become more aware of their nervous system, develop healthier boundaries, and begin reconnecting with their bodies, their emotions, their desires, and their own voice.

What sets my work apart is that I don’t approach healing as something I am standing on the other side of telling someone else how to do. I have lived this work, and I continue to live it. I understand what it feels like when grief changes everything, when your nervous system feels like it is running your life, when you’ve spent decades taking care of everyone else, and when you suddenly realize you don’t know who you are anymore.

I also don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all roadmap to healing. I’m not interested in helping someone become a “better” version of who everyone else expects them to be. I’m interested in helping them get curious about who they actually are underneath the roles, responsibilities, conditioning, survival patterns, and expectations they’ve carried.

Brand-wise, I am most proud that Intentional Healing Pathways reflects exactly what I believe: **healing is intentional, but the pathway is uniquely yours.**

My role isn’t to rescue someone or fix them. It’s to walk alongside them, ask meaningful questions, provide tools and support, and help create a space where they can safely discover what their own healing looks like.

As the brand continues to grow, my vision extends beyond one-on-one work into group programs, speaking, podcasting, writing, and resources that allow these conversations to reach more people.

Ultimately, I want readers to know that you don’t have to wait until your life completely falls apart to begin understanding yourself. And if life already has cracked you wide open, that doesn’t mean your story is over.

Sometimes that’s where the most authentic chapter of your life begins.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
There are several ways people can connect and work with me through Intentional Healing Pathways.

I offer one-on-one coaching for people navigating grief, trauma, major life transitions, parts work, nervous-system awareness, and the deeper journey of reconnecting with themselves. Whether someone is experiencing the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, estrangement, empty nesting, changing health, caregiving, or simply realizing they have lost themselves somewhere along the way, my work creates a space to slow down, get curious, and begin moving forward intentionally.

I’m also very open to collaboration. I love connecting with therapists, coaches, wellness professionals, senior communities, women’s organizations, podcasts, businesses, and other professionals who believe in creating honest conversations around grief, healing, and what it means to live fully after life changes us.

Speaking and group work are also an important part of where Intentional Healing Pathways is growing. I want to bring these conversations into rooms where people may finally hear something that gives language to what they have been carrying for years.

People can also support my work simply by sharing it. Talk about grief. Talk about healing. Share the podcast, recommend my services to someone who may need support, invite me into your community or onto your platform, or simply help normalize conversations that many of us were taught to avoid.

My goal is to create a community where people don’t feel like they have to hide the messy parts of being human.

If my story or work resonates with someone, I would love for them to reach out. Sometimes that first conversation is the beginning of an entirely new relationship with yourself.

www.intentionalhealingpathways.com

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.intentionalhealingpathways.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intentionalhealingpathwaysllc/