Stacy McCrory, MA, LMFT

I often describe myself as both a grief tender and a joy seeker — continually learning how to carry what life brings while living an embodied and meaningful life. I am a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in California, as well as the founder of TwoCan Retreats and the Santa Barbara Regional Director for the Waves of Grief Collective™.

In my clinical work, I support individuals, couples, and families navigating major life transitions, healing from trauma, and living with grief and loss. I help clients cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion, welcome all parts of themselves with care and curiosity, deepen their connection with nature, and discover new layers of meaning in their lives.

My areas of specialization include divorce and co-parenting, trauma, and grief and loss. I also find couples therapy deeply rewarding, having worked with many families navigating separation and divorce who have shown me just how vital healthy communication can be. Through psychotherapy, psychoeducation, and coaching, I help clients reduce conflict, establish healthy boundaries, and build more connected and resilient relationships.

For more than 25 years, I have worked as a treatment provider, administrator, and client advocate in both public and nonprofit mental health settings — including inpatient, outpatient, institutional, and forensic environments — as well as in private practice. Much of my career has included clinical and supervisory roles serving marginalized and underserved communities, along with advocacy, program development, and consultation on issues related to divorce and co-parenting, grief and loss, trauma and abuse, and women in leadership.

I opened my private practice in 2005 with the goal of helping families reduce conflict and minimize the impact of separation and divorce. After many years working with children and adolescents, I pursued additional training as a certified divorce mediator and Collaborative Divorce Coach, specializing in high-conflict co-parenting and parent–child contact challenges, sometimes referred to as resist/refuse dynamics. While I was a longtime member of several collaborative divorce organizations, my professional interests have evolved in recent years toward grief work and community-centered healing.

In 2021, I pursued advanced training in mindfulness and self-compassion, grief and loss, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and conscious dying, and became an end-of-life doula. I have studied with Francis Weller and other leaders in grief work and am currently studying poetry with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. I am a member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s End-of-Life Doula Council and volunteer as a doula with Dying in Grace in Santa Barbara, deepening my understanding of life, death, and the sacred transitions we all face.

Some of my most meaningful work has also included facilitating retreats in Costa Rica with my husband through the organization we founded in 2018, TwoCan Retreats. At home in Santa Barbara, we co-facilitate Waves of Grief™ community circles at the beach in partnership with the Waves of Grief Collective™, and enjoy gathering with friends and community through shared meals, music, and time in nature.

As a mother, stepmother, grandmother, parent educator, and former childcare provider, I have dedicated much of my life to supporting the wellbeing of children and families. I believe deeply in the healing power of community, compassion, and acts of kindness. My hope is that through greater connection — with ourselves, with one another, and with the natural world — we can live more fully and help create a more caring and peaceful world.