Farewell Foundations

This Mortal Terrain seeks to answer the question: “What are you called into?”.

This opening course in the Farewell curriculum invites you to map the landscape of modern death care and your place within it. You’ll explore how cultural attitudes toward death shape our collective experience, where healthcare systems excel, and where they fall short. Learn how death doulas bridge those gaps by offering presence, advocacy, and ritual where the system cannot.

Through guided self-inquiry, you’ll deepen your own relationship with mortality, treating it as a spiritual practice that roots and sustains your work at the bedside.

Sacred Ground asks the question: “What grief do you carry, and how do you tend it?”
 

In this course, you’ll turn inward to explore the personal, ancestral, and cultural grief you already hold and how it has shaped your capacity to serve others at the end of life. We’ll uncover unexamined fears and beliefs about death, examine the weight of collective and ambiguous grief, and explore the wounds passed down through generations. You’ll also discover how cultural traditions influence the way we meet death and grief, and how ritual and ceremony can become powerful tools for healing, connection, and transformation, for yourself and those you walk alongside.

Whispers Between Worlds asks: “How do you maintain the boundaries that keep your deathwork grounded, ethical, and sustainable?”
 

This course explores the vital role of values and ethics in creating a safe container for Deathwalking. You’ll learn to understand energy fields and the luminous body, use physical touch as a tool for connection and comfort, and discern when active listening and holding space are enough. We’ll also cover nervous system regulation practices, self-care strategies, and how to establish boundaries that protect both you and those you serve. Ritual cleansing and ceremony are introduced as sacred tools for releasing what you carry, so you can return to the work renewed.

Mapping the Farewell asks: “How do death doulas prepare for the final chapter of life?”
 

This course dives into advance care planning as both a practical and compassionate act, showing how Deathwalking can guide individuals and families through decisions that honor their values. You’ll explore the essential components of comprehensive end-of-life care, from medical preferences to emotional and spiritual needs. We’ll examine the art of vigil preparation, when and how life review offers closure, and the creation of legacy projects that preserve meaning for loved ones.

Vessel and Veil explores: “How do the body and soul prepare for death, and how do death doulas stand at this sacred threshold?”
 

This course investigates the intertwined physical and spiritual processes of dying, equipping Deathwalkers to recognize and honor each stage. You’ll learn how to create a safe container for fear, sorrow, and uncertainty, while understanding the signs of the body’s natural decline, drawing from both medical insight and symbolic wisdom. We’ll address the nature of pain and suffering, the spiritual journey of release, and the subtle cues that mark the nearing of death. Meditations, rituals, and bedside practices offer tools for easing death anxiety and supporting an intentional passage.

This Grief Has Teeth considers: “How do we walk with the sharpest edges of loss?”
 

This course confronts the realities of sudden, unexpected, and traumatic death, whether through medical crisis, accident, natural disaster, homicide, suicide, or drug-related loss. We’ll explore compassionate ways to support families experiencing pregnancy loss, stillbirth, infant and pediatric death, and those navigating Medical Aid in Dying, Death with Dignity, or Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED). With a focus on trauma-informed presence, you’ll learn advocacy strategies for equitable access to death care, ensuring dignity and compassion even in the most devastating circumstances.