pre-order Sara's New Book Here

A woman’s guide to healing after life’s most challenging seasons

Heartbreak is mandatory. Transformation is a choice.

“A heartfelt and essential guide for every woman's journey toward wholeness and resilience.”

—Sara Gottfried, MD

“A must-read for anyone seeking solace and rebirth after a challenging season of life.”

Elena Brower

After experiencing serial heartbreaks in every area of her life over a span of five years, Sara Avant Stover felt deeply impacted by our culture’s dysfunctional relationship with loss—especially for women. 

We’re encouraged at every turn to hurry up and get on with it. But by trying to power through these messier seasons of life, we’re denying ourselves the very answers to our healing and growth.

In a heartbreak-illiterate world,  Handbook for the Heartbroken offers solace and support through personal, professional, and collective losses of all kinds—including the end of a relationship or a job, death of a loved one, a natural disaster, infertility, abortion, or a financial crisis.

— Tracee Stanley

“A healing balm for the heart, Handbook for the Heartbroken is a guide into the portals of awakening, rebirth, and wholeness. In a culture where we are often shamed for our suffering, this book is a light on the path towards acceptance and trust. Thank you Sara, for this much- needed gift to the world.”

— Kaira Jewel Lingo

“For anyone experiencing heartbreak, past, present, or future (all of us!), Sara Avant Stover’s wise and comforting teachings will wrap you in a warm blanket of understanding and truly helpful practices that bring relief. Drink the steaming cup of tea she offers us, through the incredibly poignant and insightful stories of her own healing and those of her students. I can’t imagine a better companion through grief and devastation than this book.”

— Mirabai Starr

“In these times of upheaval and uncertainty, we do not need more preachy books by self-proclaimed experts. What we need is vulnerability. Beauty. Luminous examples of what it looks like to walk through the wreckage with your heart open, your mind curious, your soul attuned. We need fearless storytellers like Sara Avant Stover. This book is generous and generative.”

What Readers are saying

author of Radiant Rest and The Luminous Self

author of Caravan of No Despair and Wild Mercy

author of We Were Made for These Times, coauthor of Healing Our Way Home

Whatever form your life transition is taking– the birth of a child, loss of a pet, retirement, career transition, death of a loved one, illness or injury (yours or another’s), a financial crisis, or something else– this masterclass will support you. 

I’ll guide you through the six, core skills you need to cultivate so you can weather even the most challenging of times with more wisdom and wholeness. These are the key things– beyond what’s included in my book– I’ve extracted from my own journey. I’ve synthesized and streamlined them in this masterclass so you can implement them right away.

Limited Time Gift

As a special gift to my community, when you pre-order 2 or more books before the book is released on May 7, in addition to all of the regular bonuses, you’ll also receive:

IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO MY EXCLUSIVE MASTERCLASS, “NAVIGATING LIFE TRANSITIONS WITH GRACE” (A $97 VALUE) 

  • Your Comfort Kit Checklist: A pdf guide to help you prepare for our heartbreak journey by creating space for healing in your home and life 

  • A Handbook for the Heartbroken Playlist of curated music to inspire you through all the different phases and flavors of your heartbreak journey

  • Audio meditations, led by the author, to accompany the exercises in the book, guiding you through each step of your heartbreak journey 


Pre-Order 1 Book:

Pay it forward! We’re not meant to experience heartbreak alone. Buy one for yourself and gift another woman in your world who needs some extra support or inspiration. 
  • Enjoy all of the above gifts
  • Receive the "Navigating Life Transitions with Grace" Masterclass
  • Plus, receive a free ticket to our LIVE gathering, "Wild Heartbreak" with Sara and author of Wild Feminine, Tami Lynn Kent” (a $97 value)
  • You'll also be able to invite your friend to enjoy these bonuses and a ticket to this live event

Pre-Order 2 Books:

Buy the book from your preferred bookseller above, then forward your purchase receipt to hello@saraavantstover.com to receive the below limited-time gifts.

Claim Your Free Gifts

step 2:

 Pre-Order Your Copy of Handbook for the Heartbroken

step 1:

Let’s gather as a community to celebrate the book’s arrival with a live virtual gathering co-hosted by Sara and author of Wild Feminine, Tami Lynn Kent: "Wild Heartbreak: Grief & Healing the Wounds of the Feminine"

We’ll expand the conversation around heartbreak from just breakups and bereavement to also include personal, professional, and collective falls from grace and losses of all kinds– past and present. In addition, we'll explore how our heartbreaks are intricately linked to collective wounds of the feminine.

Even if you’re not experiencing heartbreak right now, you’ll walk away with insights to show up more powerfully in your life.

This gathering will be exclusive to readers who pre-ordered at least two books and includes teachings, guided practices, Q&A, discussions, and journaling prompts.

SAVE THE DATE!
May 8 at 11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern
(If you can’t attend live, you’ll receive the recording.)

Pay it forward in a bigger way! Buy one copy for yourself and gift ten women– friends, family, students, or clients– who need this wisdom, too.
  • Enjoy all of the above gifts
  • Plus, receive instant access to my most popular on-demand course, "Befriending Your Inner Critic"

Pre-Order 10 Books:

Befriending Your Inner Critic: An Internal Family Systems & Women's Spirituality Course (a $200 value)

When you're going through a challenging season in life, the dial can get turned up on the critical voices inside of us. We feel like we're falling short of society's expectations of us and we can feel a lot of guilt and shame.

This on-demand course (my most popular one) was originally a two-day, live retreat that I taught. It includes multiple sessions of women's yin and flow yoga, meditation, and Internal Family Systems inquiry. 

All of these will help to settle your nervous system, connect with your inner guidance (an imperative to lead you through these seasons of life), and to come into right relationship with your Inner Critics. Yes, we have many! These include your Inner Controller, Perfectionist, Task Master, and Inner Tormentor.

Imagine if that voice inside your head that’s always saying “do more” or “do it better” became your biggest cheerleader. This course will show you how to transform your Inner Critics into trusted allies so you can emerge from your heartbreak feeling more whole and confident.

Pay it forward in the biggest way possible! When it comes to giving, sometimes more is better. 
  • Enjoy all of the above gifts
  • Plus, enjoy either a half-day her Self Strategy Intensive with Sara, or have her spend that time (virtually) with your audience or community (A $2500 value)

 This is for you if you want to share this book with a larger audience– at an event, conference, training, or course. (Bulk discounts are available; reach out here or more details.)

Pre-Order 100+ Books:

— Tami Lynn Kent

“This world will break your heart—the question is what will you do with it? How refreshing to read Sara Avant Stover’s, Handbook for the Heartbroken, and have a fierce, tender, and skilled companion for the deep walk through heartbreak that knows how to make heart medicine on this journey to live on and heal well. And though the stories Stover shares are personal, each one echoes the greater wounds and heartbreak of the feminine that we each must heal for her to rise from the ashes of a patriarchal time and reembody her beautiful truth.”

— Jody Day

“Life is guaranteed to bring all of us to our knees at some point; this is the book to read when you’re on the floor. This is a gift of a book; one that is destined to be a much-loved resource for all women when life falls apart. Presented as a totally relatable mixture of vulnerable auto-biography, practical guidance, and the stories of other women Sara has worked with, it is refreshingly free of the kind of inspirational bullshit that ignores the complex intersectional, structural realities of so many women’s lives. This is a candid, helpful, honest, and affirming handbook.”

— Jennifer Freed, PhD

“This handbook is an elegantly and truthfully written guide to heartbreak and beyond. The book itself soothes the heart.”

What Readers are saying

author of Wild Feminine

Bestselling author of A Map to Your Soul and Use Your Planets Wisely

founder of Gateway Women, psychotherapist, author of Living the Life Unexpected

unthinkable, both past and present. With personal stories, anecdotes from clients, spiritual teachings, practices, and journaling prompts, here is a trustworthy guide to help you embrace the harder seasons of life and become a wiser, more mature, integrated human being.

Handbook for the Heartbroken will show you that it’s only through fully turning toward your heartbreak (with support, courage, and compassion) that you can heal. Within the loving pages of this book, you’ll have full permission to fall apart—and slowly, organically find your way back to greater wholeness.

An intimate and supportive mentor,  Handbook for the Heartbroken will be with you when you struggle to survive your darkest hours. A sacred container for your heartbreak experience, at times this book will also mother you with a gentle power, providing fiercely loving guidance to help you continue moving forward.

Blending her expertise in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and various wisdom traditions, Sara Avant Stover identifies the three main phases of heartbreak: devastation, transformation, and rebirth. For each phase, she offers gentle lessons and supportive practices to help you navigate the 

Conclusion: Preparing for Our Ultimate Heartbreak 

Finding Forgiveness
Restoring Trust
Coming Alive
Supporting Others 

PART III: REBIRTH
Heartbreak Story: Career & Finances

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take a look inside...

9

11

12

Navigating Shock
Bowing to Grief
Validating Yourself
Asking for Help 

PART I: DEVASTATION
Heartbreak Story: Abortion

2

1

3

4

Allowing Anger
Living with Loneliness 
Processing Pain
Creating Ritual

PART II: TRANSFORMATION
Heartbreak Story: Fertility Journey

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5

7

8

Heartbreak Story: Breakup & Betrayal
Introduction: Reframing Heartbreak 

— Miranda Macpherson

Handbook for the Heartbroken is a soulful companion that tenderly holds the hands of women as they traverse the dark valleys of their lives. With compassion and depth, Sara Avant Stover guides us to unearth the treasures hidden within our pain, leading us to become more graceful, whole human beings along the way. This is a gift to women seeking solace and a deeper connection to their own inner wisdom.”

— Sarah Powers

“In this handbook for holding and healing through life’s hardships, alongside insightful contemplations and relevant practices, Sara Avant Stover lovingly offers her own and other’s experiential heartaches as a much needed feminine circle of support during our own times of despair.”

— Sara Gottfriend, MD

Handbook for the Heartbroken is an insightful guide for women navigating the treacherous waters of all types of loss and falls from grace. Sara Avant Stover offers practical tools and healing strategies, drawing from both personal experience and extensive research. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking solace and rebirth after a challenging season of life.”


What Readers are saying

author of The Way of Grace

New York Times bestselling author of Women, Food, and Hormones

author of  Insight Yoga and Lit From Within

Sara Avant Stover is a Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner and teacher and mentor of women’s spirituality and entrepreneurship. She's also the author of The Way of the Happy Woman and The Book of SHE.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa cum Laude from Columbia University’s all-women’s Barnard College, Sara had a cancer scare, moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and, there, embarked on a decade-long healing and spiritual odyssey throughout Asia. Since then, she’s gone on to uplift tens of thousands of women worldwide. 

Sara specializes in supporting women to discover and fulfill their true potential at the intersection where entrepreneurship meets personal and spiritual growth. She’s taught at 1440 Multiversity, Kripalu, and Shambhala Mountain Center and has been featured in Yoga Journal, the Huffington Post, Newsweek, Natural Health, and on ABC, NBC, and CBS. She lives in Boulder, CO.


Meet Sara

— Elena Brower

Handbook for the Heartbroken is a lighthouse of a book, offering solace and guidance to women navigating the labyrinth of heartache. A loving
companion on our way, Sara Avant Stover reminds us through her years of experience of the gentle, steady power of self-compassion. A heartfelt and essential guide for every woman’s journey toward wholeness and resilience.”

— Daniel Foor, PhD

“Recognizing the fullness and complexity of who we each are and holding this fullness in the larger container of ritual, these are essential skills if we’re to navigate the rupture, ordeals, and sorrow that life brings. Sara Avant Stover’s work is a kind, humble, and well-crafted guidebook for just this type of navigation through the depths.”

— Kimberly Ann Johnson

“Sara Avant Stover has written a wise, grounded, and thorough roadmap and companion for women, helping us to move through the world
with self-compassion and grace, recognizing that our experience is important, that our losses must be tended, and that we are not alone on this feminine path. Handbook for the Heartbroken is a life preserver in a storm.”

What Readers are saying

author of Practice You and Softening Time

author of Call of the Wild, The Fourth Trimester, and Reclaiming the Feminine

author of  Ancestral Medicine

“Heartbreak is an inevitable part of everyone’s life journey. It’s by returning to our essential qualities like patience, open-heartedness, and trust that we can truly heal.”

This book takes a holistic approach to not just surviving heartbreak but also transforming it into a life-affirming rite of passage.

— Sara Avant Stover

Hello, beautiful.

I want to show you how to transform painful obstacles into doorways to your greatness. Because with a little bit of love and guidance, your “next level” (however you define that) is 100% possible. Promise.

THAT’S WHY I’VE PUT THE ESSENTIALS INTO A FREE AUDIO SERIES: FROM HEARTBREAK TO WHOLENESS

I have something for you.

I know your life’s full. And you want to know that fulfilling your dreams is still possible.