What is an End of Life doula?
From the Ancient Greek word meaning ‘female slave’, a Doula today refers to a trained professional who provides expert guidance and support to their clients through a significant experience, such as the end of someones life. This support can be practical, emotional or even spiritual in nature, and often includes supporting the loved ones and carers of the person who is at the end of their life.
Doulas offer support for individuals, and the families or loved ones of individuals, who are nearing the end of their lives or are living with a life limiting illness; serving as companions during those liminal times.
You could say that simply ‘being mortal’ is a significant experience in itself, as we each come to realise and accept our limitations. Working with an End of Life doula before you are actively dying can be a profound experience. It’s not uncommon for people who are facing the end of their lives to wish that they had begun the process of accepting their mortality much earlier. Discussing and practicing ways to engage more deeply with the truth of our mortality can offer a surprising amount of comfort, wherever you are on your life path.
My in-person doula work is currently limited to London and the South-East, and rates are on a case by case bases; please get in touch to discuss. I also offer distance sessions (via phone or Zoom) which serve as a space to discuss all things death, dying, grief and mortality. This could be practical advice (guidance on end of life planning etc.), emotional support (regarding fear or anxiety around your own, or someone else’s death) or a more focused program around undoing the fear of death and dying which most of us are burdened by.
These sessions last sixty minutes and cost, on a sliding scale, between $50-$100 depending on personal circumstance and what our work together will look like. To book a session, or to reach out to see whether we might be a good fit to work together, you can use this page to contact me. I’m on London time, but can be flexible with my hours and work with people across multiple timezones.
I will, in the near future, be offering a comprehensive course which seeks to explain death phobia and how we might release it, in order to more fully occupy and more deeply love life. The course is titled The Deep End, and will be available through this site.
I had the pleasure of training with Living Well Dying Well, who offer the only certified End of Life Doula training programme in the UK. If you’re in the US would like to work with a doula in-person, the International End of Life Doula Association will be able to help you.
