Finding the Answers
There are many reasons why people considering their end of life plans might call in a death doula, but what most of those reasons boil down to is that these people have a lot of questions, and they want to connect with someone who has the answers. Well, here’s the big secret: You, the doula, […]
The Importance of Showing Up
A couple of weeks ago I was woken up by a call at around 6:30 in the morning. A friend of mine needed to get to the airport and the person that had agreed to take them had canceled at the very last minute. It wasn’t a huge emergency, as emergencies go; everybody got where […]
Funerals Are For the Living AND the Dead
These days, many people are abandoning the word “funeral” and instead use the term “celebration of life.” This could not be more appropriate, because the ultimate purpose of these ceremonies is to gather one last time with others to celebrate someone we all cared about.
Last Call for Summer Summit!
Over the past few weeks, we have posted several blog entries spotlighting some of the guests who will be speaking to us at our upcoming Summer Summit celebration. Well this is going to be our last chance to do that because Summer Summit starts next week! Summer Summit is great opportunity for us to hear […]
Summer Summit Spotlight – Emma Acker
Everybody dies. We all know this; as death care professionals we face this reality every single day. One of the challenges of death care work is the fact that even though everyone dies, not everyone has the resources to pay for good care at the end of their life, and unfortunately this happens to be […]
Summer Summit – Through the Eyes of a Death Doula
Everyone here at IDLM has had the experience of telling someone they are a death doula and being met with the question, “What’s that?” We perform a necessary function, serving people in ways that have been essential for thousands of years—but at the same time, the changes in deathways across the twentieth century and the […]
My Love Affair With Forest Lawn
Forest Lawn is a company with several cemetery properties; by coincidence I happened to grow up just a few miles away from their main site in Glendale, California. It was a lovely place to meditate on life, death, or in my case, Poli Sci homework.
Spotlight on Summer Summit Guest, Dr. Cynthia Pan
This week on the blog we are highlighting an upcoming Summer Summit guest who puts the International in International Doula Life Movement. Dr. Cynthia Pan is a hospice and palliative care expert with decades of experience.
All That Remains… and What To Do With It
A friend of mine likes to regularly remind me that when he dies he wants his remains shot into space. He says it with humor because he knows it’s a silly thing to say, but he is serious about it. The two of us have even done some research together on options and pricing (for […]
The Words We Say
If you’re reading this, you already know how important it is to talk about death. One of the things you’ll hear over and over again in your IDLM classes, in workshops and CE classes, in Death Cafes and here on this blog, is how important it is to find ways to simply have conversations about […]
