Care at the Last Threshold of Life
How can a Death Doula help me or someone I love?
Much like a Birth Doula, a Death Doula helps to transition someone out of life. My work as a Death Doula focuses on legacy creation, estate issue spotting, funeral planning and body disposition. I can also aid family in funeral planning and act as a celebrant at funeral rituals. My experience as a Spiritual Director helps in conversations around end of life, anxiety, relationship to God, what happens after death, etc. Although spiritual discussions are in no way part of everyone’s desired experience, for those who would like counseling of a spiritual nature, I am uniquely suited to serve those needs. I also use Reiki and energy work to ease mental or physical pain. Sometimes you just need help, and so does your family. Hospice is very difficult to wrap your head around, but it can also be a very beautiful time in someone’s life. Let me help you celebrate it, let me help you say Goodbye.
How We Can Help
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When you know you are dying, it is a time to reflect on the legacy you will leave behind. I can help you finish the unfinished business, get your legal and medical affairs in order, and to decide what to leave for your loved ones. Legacy Companionship can also include Spiritual Direction and Reiki. We will build a package that is catered to your legacy wishes.
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Do you want to design your own life celebration? Do you have things you want to say, perhaps in your own eulogy message to those you are leaving behind? I can help you with this process, as well as educate you and your family on your options for a service and your final bodily resting place.
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Are you worried about how your family will cope on your death? I can step in and help to make calls, assist with services and help your family to preserve space for their grief in the often overwhelming busy work of death.
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I am happy to work with you, or your family, in planning the service for your remembrance, as well as acting as celebrant for the ceremony. As the person chosen to lead the celebration of your life, I think it is essential that I know you and those you love- you deserve someone who captures you and can help your family to smile through tears. I am committed to providing a unique and personal celebration of life for my beloved clients.
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Very few of us get to know the time of our death. If you are using medically assisted dying to end your own suffering, creating that last day is a privilege. I can help guide you to a meaningful plan for the day of your death, as well as any celebrations in the days before. Having a plan, and a ritual around the moments before you transition, can help you and those you love hold space for your death without fear or regret.
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The grief we feel at the death of a beloved pet is often minimized and overlooked by society. However, a pet’s death can be traumatic, and is often the first death experience for children. Now that in-home euthanasia is available, we can say goodbye to our beloved friends in a peaceful place. Allow me to help you though the process, and to create a ritual that will help your whole family understand death without the trauma.
Invite a Death Doula Into Your Life
Much as a birth, every death deserves a doula. I am passionate about bringing ritual back into our lives, and using ritual as a way to hold us through the liminal spaces, the transitions over the thresholds of life. I can help dying people with both the practical and spiritual aspects of death. I can aid families understand the dying process, and I can help them in the immediate aftermath of the death of their person. We will all die- let’s do it consciously.