Meet Kimberly Blair | Founder & Lead Practitioner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kimberly Blair and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly, how does your business help the community?
A meaningful part of my work focuses on supporting people through grief, including one of the most overlooked populations in grief care: pet parents grieving the loss of a beloved animal companion. For many people, a pet is a best friend, family member, an emotional anchor, yet this type of loss is often minimized or misunderstood by society.
In my private practice, I offer a Pet Loss Grief Counseling Program, where I work with clients one on one through a structured grief recovery process. Over time, I began seeing more and more grieving pet parents seeking support. While this work is deeply meaningful, I quickly realized a limitation: as one practitioner, I can only see four clients per day in 90 minute sessions (occasionally five). That meant there were many people in need that I simply could not serve.

To expand access to support, I created the Pet Grief Relief App. The app was designed to bring compassionate, structured grief support to pet parents anywhere in the world who may not have access to a therapist, cannot afford ongoing counseling, or simply need support outside of traditional therapy settings.

The app provides a private and supportive space where grieving pet parents can access tools such as guided grief reflections, healing exercises, memorial practices, emotional education about grief, and supportive resources to help process the loss of a pet. It also helps normalize the grief experience and reminds people that the depth of their pain reflects the depth of their love.

At its core, the social impact of my work is about expanding access to compassionate grief support. Whether through one on one counseling or through the Pet Grief Relief App, my goal is to ensure that no one has to navigate the loss of a beloved companion alone. By validating this form of grief and providing accessible healing tools, the work helps people move through loss in a healthier way while honoring the profound bond between humans and animals.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My work centers around helping people navigate grief and emotional healing through holistic and structured approaches. I’m the founder of The Guides Holistic Therapies, where I work with clients through modalities such as clinical hypnotherapy, breathwork, sound therapy, Reiki, and the Grief Recovery Method. A meaningful part of my practice focuses on helping people move through loss in a compassionate, intentional way.

Over time, one of the most profound needs I began to see was among pet parents grieving the loss of a beloved animal companion. The bond people share with their pets is incredibly deep, yet pet loss is often misunderstood or minimized in our culture. I began offering a dedicated Pet Loss Grief Counseling Program, and as word spread, more and more pet parents started reaching out for support.

What quickly became clear was that there were far more people in need than I could physically serve. My sessions are 90 minutes long, and as one practitioner I can realistically see four clients a day, occasionally five. That realization led to a pivotal question: How do I help more people who are hurting when my time is limited?
That’s what inspired me to create the Pet Grief Relief App.

The app was designed to expand access to compassionate grief support for pet parents everywhere. It offers guided grief support, reflection exercises, memorial practices, and emotional education to help people process the loss of their pet in a healthy and supported way. It also helps normalize the depth of grief people feel after losing a pet and reminds them that their pain is valid because their love was real.

What I’m most proud of is that the app allows this work to reach people far beyond the walls of my practice. Someone grieving at 2 a.m., someone who doesn’t have access to grief counseling, or someone who simply needs support in private can now have tools available to them immediately.

The path to building this work hasn’t been easy. Like many entrepreneurs, I didn’t set out thinking I would start a business or launch an app. My journey into this work was shaped by personal experiences with illness, grief, and transformation. Along the way, I’ve had to learn an entirely new set of skills, everything from entrepreneurship and marketing to technology and product development.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that when you follow a calling rooted in service, the path often reveals itself step by step. There were many moments of uncertainty, but each challenge pushed me to think more creatively about how to serve people in a bigger way.

What I want the world to know about my work is that grief deserves care, attention, and compassionate tools. And when it comes to pet loss, people should never feel like they have to carry that heartbreak alone.

My hope is that through both my practice and the Pet Grief Relief App, more people feel supported, understood, and gently guided as they move through one of the hardest experiences of loving deeply, the loss of someone who meant everything.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend were visiting, I’d center most of the trip around the two coastal neighborhoods where my offices are located: Pacific Beach and La Jolla. Each has a very different personality, and together they capture the best of San Diego’s coastal lifestyle.

Pacific Beach has a vibrant, energetic beach culture. The boardwalk is always alive with surfers, bikers, runners, and people soaking up the ocean air. It’s a great place to grab casual food, coffee, or tacos near the water and spend time walking along the beach or watching the sunset over the Pacific.

Just a short drive north is La Jolla, which feels a bit more relaxed and scenic. The coastline around La Jolla Cove is stunning, with dramatic ocean views, sea lions resting on the rocks, and beautiful walking paths along the cliffs. The village area is full of charming shops, art galleries, and restaurants with incredible ocean views.

Between the laid back energy of Pacific Beach and the natural beauty of La Jolla, visitors really get a sense of what makes this part of San Diego so special coastal scenery, outdoor living, and a lifestyle that naturally slows you down and invites you to enjoy the moment.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d love to give a shoutout to the Better Business Bureau Accelerator Program. It’s a business development program designed to support entrepreneurs with mentorship, guidance, and practical tools to help grow and strengthen their businesses.

As a newer entrepreneur building my practice, the program gave me access to experienced mentors and a community of other founders who were navigating similar challenges. One of the most valuable parts was having a space where I could ask questions, think more strategically about growth, and start looking at my business through a more structured, metrics driven lens.

Coming from a practitioner background, where so much of my focus is on helping people one on one: it was incredibly helpful to have guidance around the business side of things: marketing, visibility, operations, and long term planning.

The Accelerator Program helped me refine how I talk about my work, think about scaling impact, and make decisions that support sustainable growth.

Programs like this can make a big difference for small business owners, especially when you’re building something meaningful but complex. I’m really grateful for the mentorship, encouragement, and practical insight the program provided as I continue growing my work supporting people through grief and holistic healing.

Website: https://petgriefrelief.app

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theguidesholistictherapies

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-guide-holistic-therapies/?viewAsMember=true

Image Credits
Erica Joan
Erica Joan Productions
p: 916.769.0385
e: erica@ericajoanproductions.com