What is a Death Doula?
A Death Doula can support the dying and their loved ones through many of the emotional, spiritual, logistical aspects of death. We can help support families and the dying in preparing for death. We can be a crucial support to those who are dying in hospital settings. We can help with the settling of legal, financial, and other paperwork so that these things do not overwhelm loved ones during or after a death.
What can I do for you?
Offer a consultation either by phone, in-person, or zoom about the death you are facing. This could either be an active death or a death that has already occurred.
Offer ceremonial planning and in-home death services. Can work alongside a funeral director to help plan the funeral arrangements. Can discuss and plan around all options available for disposition of a body.
Sit bedside and offer support to the dying person, both emotional and logistical.
Offer resources for legal and financial end of life planning.
Join the dying and their loved ones to medical appointments and hospital visits to be a part of discussions with medical professionals.
Be of support to caretakers of the dying. (Help do random tasks around the home)
Offer creative ways to bring art, music, life, love to the dying process.
Offer ways to explore and integrate the dying person’s own ancestral practices around death.
These are just some of my offerings, if we talk, we can come up with a personalized plan that works for each dying person and their loved ones.
How much will hiring you cost?
I will work with you to determine a fee structure that works for every person’s financial reality. Contact me or schedule a free 30-minute meeting to talk about potentially working together. (Existing clients can schedule time here.)
What training did you complete to be a death doula? Why are you here?
I completed Going with Grace’s End of Life Training and Education Program in May of 2021. I then served as a student guide for Going with Grace’s students during the summer of 2021 and early 2022. I assisted with my father’s death alongside my sister and mother in Spring of 2019. We were assisted at the point of my father’s passing by a death doula, which is how I came to this work. Earlier in 2019 I joined a group of mostly women family members in Mumbai, India to witness and participate in the loving caretaking of my dying grandmother. I have been in various stages of grief for some time now and have been studying the possibilities for love and life when death and grief is held close.
What I know
We are all capable of dying, loved ones are capable of helping the dying. I offer the support and deep knowledge that dying is what we do. We have the capacity to do this in community. Doing this work can heal / build / repair. Doing this work will ultimately mean something different for every human.
An essay I wrote on these things: You Are Capable Of Dying And Helping Your Loved Ones Die
NBC Interview piece: What is a death doula? The growing field for end-of-life care explained
Podcasts where I have spoken on Death/Grief:
Mortality and the Morgue: Grieving Divorce & Relationship Loss
Interview with Gothamist - NYC End-of-Life Death Doulas
Intersectional Fertility Podcast: The Importance of Death Work
