Compassionate support at end-of-life
Janet Brown
Welcome to Good Death Doula
I’m so grateful that you found me. I also realize since you did find me, that you or someone you love is likely dealing with a life-limiting diagnosis, considering hospice care, or concerned about advanced care planning. I’m here to help support you and those you love along your path with compassion, deep listening, and grace. I know this can be an incredibly stressful and destabilizing time. I’m here to walk with you as you navigate step-by-step this challenging, yet sacred time.
You can learn more about my journey, services I offer, or contact me to learn how we can work together. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sending you loving kindness,
Why hire an end-of-life doula?
Many people are just beginning to hear the term “end-of-life doula” and question why anyone would need to enlist the support. Doesn’t hospice fill this role? In a word, no. Families dealing with a health crisis or a cancer diagnosis that is progressing learn that although many hospice workers are wonderful and committed caregivers, they do not have the time to spend with families and provide enough support during this stressful, anxiety-inducing time. Too often, family members are handed a large folder of great resources that they do not have the time, energy, or capacity to review. An end-of-life doula will walk step by step with the family to promote spiritual, emotional, and physical wellness by providing resources, explaining decision points, and supporting the dying through advanced care planning. An end-of-life doula understands and honors wishes as an advocate and liaison with hospice care and supports critical decision-making with intention, compassion, deep listening, and grace.
Listen to Janet’s talk at the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing on The Role of An End-of-Life Doula.
Please visit the Services page for more information.
“The beautiful, difficult work of offering spiritual care to dying people has arisen in response to the fear-bound American version of “the good death” – a death that is too often life-denying, antiseptic, drugged-up, tube-entangled, institutionalized. Old age, sickness, and death do not have to be equated with suffering: we can live and practice in such a way that dying is a natural rite of passage, a completion of our life, and even the ultimate in liberation.” – Roshi Joan Halifax, Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death