Meet Jennifer
Hi, I'm Jenn.
Jennifer Nelson, LCSW · Certified Grief Educator · EMDR · KAP Certified · CSTAT · Since 2007
I'm a grief, loss, and trauma specialist and the founder of Oak & Willow. Since 2007, I've worked with individuals and families navigating grief, traumatic loss, suicide and overdose loss, addiction, trauma, and major life transitions.
I believe grief is not something we “get over,” but something we learn to live with — while redefining life, finding meaning, and connection moving forward. My work integrates psychotherapy, nervous system and somatic approaches, grief education, breathwork, EMDR, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), and relational support to help you move through loss with compassion, support, and hope.
Beyond counseling, I offer workshops, speaking, end-of-life support, and integrative experiences designed to support the whole person — mind, body, spirit, and connection.
Beyond traditional therapy
Oak & Willow goes beyond a traditional therapy model into a collaborative and specialized care practice focused on grief, trauma, end-of-life support, nervous system regulation, and meaningful human connection.
Background
The path that led here.
Jennifer Nelson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, speaker, educator, and founder of Oak & Willow. Since 2007, she has dedicated her career to helping individuals and families navigate grief, trauma, addiction, life transition, and profound loss.
Jennifer specializes in grief and loss surrounding suicide, overdose, traumatic death, anticipatory grief, and end-of-life experiences. Her work was shaped through years of clinical leadership, residential treatment, family systems work, and trauma-focused care, where she repeatedly witnessed grief being overlooked, misunderstood, or treated solely as trauma without addressing the unique process of loss itself.
She believes that grief is a lifelong process of learning how to live differently after loss. Without support that addresses both, many people become stuck between what happened and how to move forward.
Jennifer's approach integrates evidence-based psychotherapy with somatic and nervous system-informed care, EMDR, breathwork, grief education, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), relational support, and emerging integrative therapies. She believes grief affects every layer of a person's life — the body, mind, relationships, identity, spirituality, and sense of meaning — and that true support must honor the whole person.
Before founding Oak & Willow, Jennifer served as a Clinical Director within treatment facilities, supervising clinicians and interns while developing trauma-informed and experiential treatment programming. Her earlier work included addiction treatment, co-occurring disorders, eating disorder programming, family recovery work, and intensive trauma treatment.
Today, Jennifer's work extends beyond traditional therapy into workshops, retreats, speaking, community education, end-of-life support, and integrative experiences that help individuals and families move through life's most difficult transitions with connection, meaning, and hope.
At the heart of her work is the belief that people do not need to leave their loved ones, grief, or stories behind in order to move forward. Instead, they can learn to live with both joy and sorrow together while continuing to build a meaningful life.
“A journey to hope.”
Jennifer Nelson, LCSW
In their words
What the work felt like.
“Jenn met me in the place I was most afraid to go, and somehow made it feel survivable. I came in holding a loss I couldn't speak about. I left able to breathe.”
“I'd done years of talk therapy. With Jenn, for the first time, my body finally believed I was safe. That changed everything.”
“She gave my grief somewhere to live that wasn't just inside me. The work was gentle and it was real.”