Today we’d like to introduce you to Rev. Dr. Tammy Isaac.
Hi Rev. Dr. Tammy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My path started long before grief showed up. I was serving in ministry, attending college, and taking Communication 101 when everything shifted for me. After hearing me speak and watching how I interacted with others, my professor encouraged me to major in communication. She told me I had a natural way of connecting with people and creating a sense of trust in conversation. I didn’t know then how much that guidance would shape the work I do now, but it became a solid foundation for everything that followed.
My academic journey continued to grow. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, a Master of Divinity, and later a Doctor of Ministry. Each degree strengthened a different part of my calling. Communication taught me how to listen with clarity. My theological studies grounded my approach to spiritual care. And my doctoral work expanded my ability to teach, write, and walk with people through grief with both skill and compassion. I am now pursuing a degree in Thanatology to deepen my understanding of death, dying, and bereavement so I can continue to serve grievers with knowledge and integrity.
I continued in ministry and later became an Associate Pastor, where I grew even more in supporting people through important moments in their lives. But when my mother passed away, grief showed up in a way that stopped me. I stepped back from full-time ministry because I didn’t know how to navigate the weight of it. I also didn’t receive the support I expected from the ministry I had poured so much into. That season was painful, but it opened the door to hospice chaplaincy, where I discovered a calling that honored both my faith and my own healing.
Since then, I’ve served in hospice, hospital chaplaincy, counseling, and grief education. I founded Breathe Counseling Center, wrote several books, and created the Permission to Breathe Podcast to help people have honest and accessible conversations about grief and emotional healing.
Today I’m a full-time hospital chaplain, author, speaker, and a grief advocate and educator. My work has grown in many directions, but the heart of it remains the same: I show up, I listen, and I help people find meaning and hope in the middle of hard and holy moments. That foundation carried me forward and still guides the way I support grievers today.
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?
It has not been a smooth road. The biggest challenge I faced was navigating my own grief while still being someone others relied on. Two months after my mother passed away, I ended up in the hospital with shortness of breath and chest pain. What I thought was a medical emergency turned out to be grief. The demands of grief and the demands of my work environment did not work well together, and my body made that clear.
During that time, I also fell into a depression and sought therapy to help me understand what I was feeling. My therapist told me I was high functioning, which explained why even the people closest to me could not tell that I was struggling. I was moving, serving, and producing, but inside I was overwhelmed and exhausted.
That season affected everything, including my education. My doctoral journey took much longer than planned because I simply couldn’t focus. But in the middle of that season, during a quiet moment with God, I was led to shift the focus of my doctoral work. I moved from writing about women in ministry to writing about grief in spiritual communities. That decision opened a new path for healing and clarity.
The work I did for my doctoral program became the foundation for my book “Let the Church Grieve”. What felt like a setback became the beginning of the work I am doing today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
My work is centered through Breathe Grief Recovery Support and Christian Counseling and the Breathe brand as a whole. I created it because I wanted a space where people could talk honestly about grief, emotional pain, and the inner work that follows loss. My focus is grief education, spiritual care, and helping people understand the emotional weight they carry in a way that feels human and accessible.
I specialize in grief support for adults, with a particular heart for Black women, caregivers, and people navigating chronic pain or long-term illness. I am known for taking complex emotional and spiritual experiences and making them easier to understand. Whether I am writing, teaching, counseling, or speaking, my goal is the same. I want to give people language for what they feel and a path they can walk at their own pace.
What sets me apart is where I stand in the work. I am a chaplain, an author, a grief counselor, and a spiritual educator, so I bring all of those lenses together. I do not teach grief only from an academic point of view. I sit with it every day at the bedside, in the hospital, in counseling sessions, through my writing, and in the stories people trust me with. My work is shaped by lived experience, clinical training, and spiritual insight working together and not against each other.
I am most proud of how the Breathe brand has grown into a community. It includes my books, my podcast, the counseling center, workshops, and the resources I create for workplaces and healthcare settings. More important than any product is the impact. People often tell me that my work helps them feel seen, less alone, and more understood. That is what matters most to me.
What I want readers to know is this. My brand is not built on perfection. It is built on honesty, compassion, and helping people find room to breathe again when life has knocked the wind out of them. Whether someone meets me through a book, a podcast episode, a workshop, or a counseling session, they will always be met with care, clarity, and a genuine desire to help them heal.
What’s next?
I have several things on the horizon that I am excited about. I am continuing my studies in Thanatology because I want to deepen my expertise in death, dying, and bereavement. Education has always shaped my work, and this degree will strengthen the way I support grievers and the professionals who care for them.
I am also expanding the Breathe brand in intentional ways. I am developing more workshops, workplace trainings, and grief resources for healthcare staff, corporate teams, and communities that need support but may not know where to start. I want to help organizations understand how grief affects people at work and how they can create healthier environments.
Writing continues to be a priority in my future plans as well. I have several books and teaching resources in progress, including projects focused on chronic pain, grief in the workplace, and spiritual care. I want my work to reach people in different stages of life and in different settings.
I am also building out the Breathe community through retreats and in-person gatherings. My goal is to create spaces where people can rest, learn, heal, and not feel rushed or judged.
As far as changes, I am looking forward to stepping more into teaching and speaking. I want to equip others to navigate grief with confidence and compassion. Wherever my work grows, the heart of it will stay the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.drtammyisaac.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtammyisaac/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drtammyisaac
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtammyisaac/
