This week IDLM has been celebrating our Fifth Annual Birthday Bash. It’s been fantastic so far, and if you are reading this on the day we posted it (Friday, Jan 9 2026), you can still join us for tonight’s session!
One of the major topics under discussion is particularly vital to new doulas trying to build a practice—where do you start? We all know it’s important to get out there, but where is there? And who are you supposed to talk to when you find it?
There are a few potential options, depending on your local community. Libraries and churches are good places to host events like death cafes, where you can have open conversations about death and dying, and what death doulas can offer to people in the last phase of their life. You can also find and reach out to local hospices and funeral service companies to build relationships. If you tell them you want to send them referrals, they may be receptive to the idea of making a new connection that will send them more business.
The thing to remember is you have to be brave and you have to be patient. If you host that death café, maybe only two or three people will show up. The best thing to do in that case is host another one as soon as possible and make sure those folks know so they can come back and hopefully bring friends. The hospice or funeral homes might be suspicious that a death doula might be trying to compete with them because they don’t really understand what a death doula does. Don’t be discouraged if they don’t want to talk to you, just move on to the next business in town and see if you can make a little more progress.
It probably won’t be easy, especially if you’re starting from scratch. But nothing worth really doing is ever easy, and the good news is you have the whole community at IDLM behind you, supporting you every step of the way. Come to the Movement to ask questions and see what other folks have done that has worked for them. You can also come to our CE Nights to getnew info and keep up with what’s going on in the Death Care industry. Our Business 101 class is this weekend, so that might be a great place for you to start!
Here at IDLM, we are working to improve the quality of death care, and we do that through the doulas that come here to learn and to take their new knowledge out into the world. We want to support you on your journey because we are so glad you are here.
