About
Zion’s Lighthouse
Zion’s Lighthouse was founded by Louisa Hendrickson following the death of her son, Zion.
The organisation exists to change how grief, baby loss, and trauma are understood and responded to, supporting families, organisations, and public bodies to engage with loss in ways that are compassionate, trauma-informed, and rooted in real understanding, not only at an individual level, but within the systems that shape people’s experiences during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Zion’s Lighthouse brings together lived experience, professional training, trauma-informed practice, and advocacy to support compassionate, ethical, and sustainable change, particularly where people have historically been overlooked or poorly served.
My Story
I’m Louisa, and I’m a mum of four.
I have three of my children with me, and one angel baby, my beautiful baby boy Zion Esau Hendrickson.
I’ve been pregnant seven times in eight years. After the birth of my first daughter, I experienced three consecutive miscarriages at around seven weeks. Following those losses, I was diagnosed with antiphospholipid syndrome (lupus anticoagulant), which meant that every pregnancy afterwards involved daily blood-thinner injections (tinzaparin).
I’ll be honest, I hate needles. But pregnancy teaches you very quickly what you are capable of when love is involved.
My pregnancies were medically complex. I experienced hyperemesis gravidarum, required hospital admissions, and during my final pregnancy I needed an emergency cervical cerclage at around 24 weeks when my cervix began to open prematurely.
I was later diagnosed with endometriosis, a long-standing and extremely painful condition that had gone undetected for years and was only identified once I was opened up during surgery.
Pregnancy was never carefree for me. It was layered with risk, fear, resilience, gratitude, and profound love for the babies I carried.
Zion
In April 2020, during the first COVID lockdown, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy, Zion Esau Hendrickson.
Zion was born prematurely and survived for 47 minutes.
I went into hospital believing I had a water infection. I left without my baby, alone, in the middle of a pandemic.
That moment changed everything.
Losing Zion activated trauma responses I didn’t yet have language for. I was initially diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety, and later with complex PTSD, recognising that Zion’s death re-activated earlier trauma already held in my body.
I had to learn how to navigate grief largely on my own, emotionally, physically, and psychologically, while continuing to show up for my family and for the world around me.
What Shaped the Work
Movement saved my life.
Yoga became a lifeline, not as a fix but it helped me stay connected to my body when my nervous system felt overwhelmed. Through this, I came to understand something that now sits at the heart of Zion’s Lighthouse:
Grief and trauma are not only experienced emotionally, they are held in the body.
Over the years, I have spent time learning about grief, trauma, and the nervous system, and the profound ways they interact. Through lived experience, professional development, and research, I’ve learned that trauma cannot be neatly compartmentalised. Unprocessed trauma remains stored in the body and continue to shape how we live, work, and relate.
This understanding informs how Zion’s Lighthouse works with both individuals and organisations.
The Zion’s Lighthouse Team
Zion’s Lighthouse is led by lived experience and strengthened through collaboration. The work is supported by a small, trusted team of practitioners whose skills, training, and lived experience complement one another, allowing services to be delivered with depth, integrity, and clear professional boundaries. Together, the team supports individuals, families, and organisations in ways that are trauma-informed, ethical, and grounded in real understanding.
