Additional information
by Ashley Olivia Nelson (Author)
No one prepares you for losing the version of yourself that loss, trauma, and major life changes took. This book helps you discover who you are when life rewrites your identity.
The Identity Reset: A Guide to Discovering Yourself After Loss, Change, and Survival is a lifeline for those navigating the difficult in-between--when your past self no longer fits, and the future feels uncertain and unrecognizable.
For some, identity loss begins with what was taken. For others, it starts with what was never given: stability, affirmation, belonging, or the safety that trauma disrupted. And when the people, roles, or routines that shaped your life have died, it changes you. Author Ashley Olivia Nelson, a loss and trauma survivor, shows that discovering who you are isn't about "moving on"--it's about moving differently, without shame, pressure, or the need to perform.
This book helps you name what's missing, understand how you've changed, and gently mend who you are--without minimizing what happened to you. As an identity and grief specialist, Ashley Olivia Nelson offers:
- Finding the words for the invisible losses that shaped you
- Granting yourself permission to grieve and explore who you are now
- Steps to ease overwhelm and build emotional capacity
- Choosing relationships that truly accept you
You'll walk away with more than validation--you'll leave with direction. Whether you're grieving who you were or who you never got to be, The Identity Reset offers soul-tending reflection and clear, heartfelt insight.
Front Jacket
How do you find inner peace and clarity after a major life transition--death, divorce, breakups, financial crisis, health challenges, retirement, or trauma?
When loss strikes, you don't just lose what you had--you lose aspects of who you were, and the life attached to it.
The Identity Reset: A Guide to Discovering Yourself After Loss, Change, and Survival gives you practical guidance--without the fluff, clich?s, or "stereotypical fixes"--on how to gain confidence, self-acceptance, and peace.
Society teaches us to perform, wear masks, and contort ourselves to survive or belong. This book offers something different: the chance to move differently--with more clarity, compassion, and choice. It helps readers recognize their survival patterns as intelligent adaptations and guides them toward uncovering their identity--not as who they should be, but as who they truly are.
As a multiple-loss survivor and grief and identity specialist, Ashley Olivia Nelson writes with both experience and expertise. She expands the definition of loss beyond death to include the identity ruptures that arise from promotions, career shifts, caregiving, and other life transitions that often go unacknowledged.
Throughout the book, Nelson helps readers verbalize symptoms they've struggled to name and validates that these experiences are real and normal. She addresses the unique challenges of living without closure, making decisions in uncertainty, building a supportive community, and expressing who you are now--in both new and long-standing relationships.
The Identity Reset integrates empathy with action, offering soul-tending reflection without minimizing what you've been through.
Whether you're grieving a person, a relationship, a belief system, or the life you thought you'd have, this book offers a grounded way to reclaim your identity--without abandoning yourself.
Back Jacket
PRAISE FOR THE IDENTITY RESET
"Ashley Olivia Nelson's The Identity Reset is a compassionate and practical guide for anyone whose identity has been upended by grief or trauma. She does a beautiful job weaving personal insight with accessible practices that help readers integrate their loss while reclaiming their voice and direction. This book will be a powerful companion for grievers, clinicians, and anyone supporting others through transition."
--JULIA WARREN, C-IAYT and grief support specialist
"Globally renowned Certified Grief Specialist Ashley Olivia Nelson has written a book that offers safety and warmth for grievers wrestling with the question 'Who am I?' after loss. By sharing her personal journey of multiple losses and her identity reset, Ashley lovingly guides her readers through the work needed to reset and create a True Identity that will step into the world with them."
--JANICE TOSTO, host of Grief Journeys on G-Town Radio, 92.9 FM Philadelphia
"This is a beautifully written book melding personal experience and professional expertise into a guide through the pain and potential to be found in loss. It is informative and insightful about all the emotions and impacts of loss while also offering practical advice. Uniquely and wisely, Ashley Olivia Nelson acknowledges how universal loss includes all the losses we experience in addition to those caused by death. Through written exercises and frequent 'recaps, ' the reader will come away feeling deeply understood, more self-aware, bolstered and inspired."
--ELENA LISTER, MD, child and adolescent psychiatrist, grief expert, and author of Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss
Author Biography
ASHLEY OLIVIA NELSON is the founder of Learning About Grief, an organization that has served over 30,000 people across more than 50 countries. She offers grief care through an identity-centered lens, helping individuals navigate loss and major life transitions. Since 2013, she has worked across grief and identity care in healthcare, mental health, life insurance, and the funeral care industries. A two-time widow and informed Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, Ashley brings both professional insight and lived experience to those facing their most vulnerable moments. Her work has been featured in POPSUGAR, Marie Claire, Shape, and Next Avenue.
