Find Peace and Intention with an End-of-Life Doula
Meaningful Moments Brings a Unique Approach to Dying Well
A compassionate presence to help you and your family navigate the final chapter with clarity and care.
What Is an End-of-Life Doula?
An end-of-life doula is a trained companion who provides emotional, spiritual, and practical support to individuals and their families during the final stages of life. Doulas offer holistic, non-medical care that centers presence, comfort, and meaning. This work helps families slow down, create connection, and honor the final chapter with intention. Engaging with the realities of death can deepen how we live clarifying what matters most and helping us move through our days with fewer regrets.
As both an End-of-Life Doula and Life-Cycle Celebrant, I support individuals and families through every part of this experience. I offer steady guidance, compassionate presence, and space for reflection, ceremony, storytelling, and cultural or spiritual practices. My role is to listen deeply, honor personal truths, and help shape an environment where love, dignity, and humanity remain at the center of care.
Focusing on death helps us learn how to live better now, ensuring that when the time comes, we have fewer regrets. As a trained End-of-Life Doula and Life-Cycle Celebrant, I provide unconditional presence and guidance for individuals and their families preparing for, navigating, and grieving after a death.
This is a holistic, non-medical companionship service designed to address the emotional, spiritual, and organizational needs of the final chapter. My goal is to facilitate conversations and create opportunities for people to be present and in touch with their shared humanity.
Why Choose an End-of-Life Doula?
Choosing an end-of-life doula means choosing to move through this tender chapter with clarity, steadiness, and support. Doulas help families communicate openly, stay connected, and make decisions grounded in the wishes and values of the person who is dying. This support can ease emotional overwhelm, reduce uncertainty, and create opportunities for meaningful interactions, even in moments of grief or fear.
I provide unconditional presence guiding conversations, helping families prepare, and offering practical and emotional support before, during, and after death. Through intentional planning, compassionate companionship, and ceremony, I help you honor your loved one’s life and navigate transition with grace.
What to Expect
Working together may include conversations, storytelling, legacy work, planning for comfort, vigil presence, and guidance for family members. Everything is shaped to reflect personal values, cultural traditions, spiritual beliefs, and individual preferences. My role is to remain flexible, responsive, and fully present walking beside you every step of the way.
Comprehensive End-of-Life Doula Services
As a Life-Cycle Celebrant and End-of-Life Doula, my support extends far beyond the memorial date. I offer comprehensive guidance for the full end-of-life chapter, ensuring peace and dignity.
My holistic approach includes:
Preparing Before: Facilitating crucial conversations to ensure loved ones live better now and prepare for the final chapter with fewer regrets.
Presence During: Providing non-medical companionship to the dying person and their family, holding space for all emotions.
Seamless Transition: This service acts as the foundation for the memorial, gathering the stories and wishes that lead directly to the perfectly custom ceremony.
How I support Individuals and families
Emotional Support
I provide a calm, grounded presence to help individuals and families express their feelings, explore meaning, and stay connected throughout the dying process.
Vigil Planning and Preparation
While I do not provide bedside vigil presence, I help families prepare for and create a meaningful vigil experience. This may include guidance on environment, roles, rituals, readings, music, and ways to maintain connection and comfort during the final hours or days.
Guidance Through Choices and Transitions
Families often have questions big and small. I help clarify options, coordinate wishes, and support conversations that bring comfort and understanding.
Ceremony and Ritual
Drawing from my work as a Life-Cycle Celebrant, I integrate ceremony into any stage of the process honoring life, offering closure, and creating moments of shared meaning.
Comprehensive Doula Services
My approach offers a complete package of support, providing continuity and guidance through the entire process, unlike fragmented care.
Planning, Life Review and Memorial Ceremonies
We’ll work together to create clarity and peace of mind. This phase includes facilitating conversations around:
End-of-Life Education: Clarity, confidence, and compassionate preparation for what lies ahead.
Legal Awareness: Understanding advanced care planning and directives
Life Review: Recounting life stories and articulating what matters most.
Final Wishes: Documenting desires for the final days and memorial.
Legacy Mapping: Identifying who to be in touch with and the values to be remembered and appropriate legacy projects.
Celebrations of Life and Memorial Ceremonies: A signature service for End-of-Life Doula clients.
Cross-Border End-of-Life Support: Guidance and support when distance, culture, and laws make the path more complex.
End-of-Life Education
A guidance-focused service that helps individuals and families understand what to anticipate as they prepare for the death of a loved one. Through gentle, clear, and comprehensive conversations, I help you navigate the emotional, practical, and organizational aspects of this stage of life. We discuss what to expect physically, how to articulate final wishes, which legal and medical documents are essential, and how to communicate effectively with one another during a time of heightened emotion and uncertainty. This service empowers families to move through the process with greater understanding, less fear, and a deeper sense of connection, ensuring that everyone feels informed, supported, and prepared for the path ahead.
Legal Awareness
While doulas do not provide legal advice, I help families understand the importance of having essential documents in place and encourage conversations with the appropriate legal and medical professionals.
This includes awareness of:
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Documents that outline a person’s medical preferences if they can no longer speak for themselves. These may include:
Living wills
Durable power of attorney for healthcare
POLST/MOLST forms (where applicable)
These directives empower individuals to have a voice in their care and relieve families from the burden of making difficult decisions without guidance.
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Having a will or trust ensures that assets are distributed according to one’s wishes and reduces stress, confusion, and conflict among loved ones. I help start the conversation and encourage families to consult legal professionals to ensure documents are accurate and complete.
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This may include organizing important documents, identifying key contacts, or clarifying logistical preferences. These steps help families feel more prepared and reduce uncertainty during an emotionally demanding time.
Drawing on my background to emphasize the necessity of complete legal preparations (wills, trusts, healthcare decisions).
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I’ll serve as your steadfast companion, offering support for both the individual and the family as death approaches. This involves deep listening, managing emotional conflict between family members, and simply holding space for whatever grief or vulnerability arises. I’m here, ensuring the highest level of respect and dignity during this sacred time.
Life Review
A life review is a guided process that invites individuals to reflect on the experiences, relationships, choices, and moments that have shaped their lives. As an end-of-life doula, I support this process through gentle conversation, thoughtful questions, and attentive listening creating a safe space for people to revisit meaningful memories, explore unfinished stories, and articulate the values and lessons they want to carry forward or pass on.
A life review is not about producing a perfect narrative; it is about honoring the fullness of a person’s journey, acknowledging joys and regrets, and affirming the impact they have had on others. This process often brings comfort, clarity, and a deeper sense of peace, while offering families a richer understanding of their loved one’s life and legacy. It is an opportunity to feel witnessed, to make meaning, and to create a sense of completion during a profound time.
Final Wishes
Final wishes are the expressed desires of the individual for their final days, last moments, and the care and ceremonies that follow their death. This may include preferences for comfort, visitors, music, environment, spiritual care, or cultural practices. It also includes guidance for memorial or funeral preferences—whether traditional, faith-based, interfaith, nature-centered, or fully personalized.
Documenting final wishes helps families feel confident in the decisions they make and ensures the person’s voice is heard, honored, and upheld.
Legacy Mapping
Legacy mapping is the process of identifying the stories, values, teachings, and memories a person wishes to pass on to the people they love. This may involve:
Recording or writing stories
Gathering photographs or letters
Crafting ethical wills or legacy statements
Sharing wisdom, hopes, or blessings for younger generations
Legacy mapping allows individuals to reflect on their life with meaning and gives families something tangible to hold onto a gift of connection long after their loved one is gone.
Ready to plan or seek compassionate companionship?
Celebrations of Life and Memorial Ceremonies
Throughout the entire process before death, during vigil, and after the loss. I offer opportunities for ceremony, meaning-making, and communal support. Whether through readings, blessings, storytelling, or personalized rituals, we create shared moments of reflection and connection that hold the family through grief and honor the life being remembered.
Because I have spent time with family members and friends during the preparation and presence phase, the final service will be authentic and profoundly personal. The celebration-of-life or memorial ceremony will be the seamless culmination of the life review and legacy work, delivered with empathy and the professional warmth and dignity I am known for as a Life-Cycle Celebrant.
My fees are structured to support the time I dedicate to this delicate and comprehensive process.
Cross-Border End-of-Life Support
(For North Americans living abroad or families navigating a death across countries France, Mexico, and Portugal)
Cross-Border End-of-Life Support is designed for individuals and families navigating the complexities of dying or preparing for death while living overseas or supporting a loved one who is. Whether the person at the end of life resides in France, Mexico, or Portugal, or family members remain in the United States, this service offers clarity, structure, and compassionate guidance. Together, we explore the cultural, legal, and logistical considerations unique to each country, helping you understand what to expect, how to coordinate care, how local death and dying laws work, and how to honor wishes across borders. This service creates a bridge of support, ensuring that distance does not prevent families from making informed decisions, staying connected, and honoring their loved one’s values and intentions with confidence and care.
Client love
"Being able to help a woman... when she went into hospice... she was able to recount her life story and talk about what she loved... That forever changed me."
Packages for End-of-Life Doula Services
Below are three clear packages offering different levels of support. These can also be customized.
The Comprehensive Package — “Full Circle Support”
For families seeking complete guidance, planning, and ceremony support.
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End-of-Life Education (multiple sessions)
Legal Awareness & Advance Care Planning (conversation + document review guidance)
Full Life Review Sessions
Final Wishes Documentation
Legacy Mapping (values, messages, projects, people to be contacted)
Ongoing communication with family members
Personalized resource packets
Coordination with the memorial ceremony (if applicable)
Celebration of Life or Memorial Ceremony included (full value: $1,000)
Up to 8–10 hours of dedicated doula time
Ideal for: Families who want comprehensive support throughout the entire process before death, in the midst of planning, and as they transition into early grief.
The Essential Package — “Foundations of Preparation”
For those who want the essentials of end-of-life planning without ceremony or extended support.
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One End-of-Life Education Consultation
Overview of Legal & Advance Care Planning
Initial review of needs and concerns
Recommendations for next steps
Written resource guide
Ideal for: Individuals or families seeking clarity and direction, especially early in the process or when exploring options.
The Standard Package — “Guided Pathway Support”
For individuals or families who want structure and support for the core elements.
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End-of-Life Education (1–2 sessions)
Legal Awareness Overview
Guided Life Review
Final Wishes Documentation
Legacy Mapping (abbreviated)
Email and limited phone support
Access to resource guides
Celebration of Life or Memorial Ceremony available as an add-on ($1,000)
Up to 4–6 hours of dedicated doula time
Ideal for: Families who need clarity, planning, and meaningful reflection but do not require extensive ongoing support.
À La Carte Service (Standalone)
Cross-Border End-of-Life Support
(For North Americans living abroad or families navigating a death across countries France, Mexico, and Portugal)
Cross-Border End-of-Life Support is designed for individuals and families navigating the complexities of dying or preparing for death while living overseas or supporting a loved one who is. Whether the person at the end of life resides in France, Mexico, or Portugal, or family members remain in the United States, this service offers clarity, structure, and compassionate guidance. Together, we explore the cultural, legal, and logistical considerations unique to each country, helping you understand what to expect, how to coordinate care, how local death and dying laws work, and how to honor wishes across borders. This service creates a bridge of support, ensuring that distance does not prevent families from making informed decisions, staying connected, and honoring their loved one’s values and intentions with confidence and care.
Pricing based on level of complexity and support needed.
Take the step toward intentional living and a dignified final chapter. Let's begin the conversation.
FAQs
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FAQs *
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An End-of-Life Doula is a non-medical companion who guides intentional planning, provides emotional support, and ensures a peaceful final chapter, reducing regrets and focusing on legacy.
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No. While I am based in Chicago, I support individuals and families across the United States and internationally. Much of my end-of-life doula work can be offered virtually, allowing me to serve clients regardless of location. I also provide specialized guidance for Americans living abroad, including in countries such as France, Mexico, and Portugal, who want support in planning for their end-of-life care.
This includes helping clients understand the complexities of navigating death and dying in a country that may have different legal, cultural, or healthcare frameworks. My role is to offer clarity, thoughtful preparation, and compassionate guidance no matter where you call home.
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My work as an End-of-Life Doula deepens the quality and authenticity of the memorial ceremonies and funeral services I create. Because I spend time learning about an individual’s values, stories, relationships, hopes, challenges, and legacy, I am able to craft ceremonies that reflect the fullness of who they were not just the broad strokes of their life. Doula support also gives me insight into the emotional needs of families during grief, helping me create space for honesty, tenderness, and connection throughout the planning process.
By understanding the dying process, final wishes, and the dynamics families often navigate at end of life, I can offer guidance that feels grounded and steady. This allows me to design ceremonies that are not generic or formulaic, but deeply personal, respectful, and supportive ceremonies that help families honor their loved one with clarity, dignity, and meaningful presence.
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No. End-of-Life Doula Care supports both the individual who is dying and the people who love them. Multi-generational families, partners, and close friends often need guidance, space, and reassurance as they navigate the emotional, practical, and relational challenges of this time. I help caregivers understand what to expect, clarify choices, plan for final wishes, and find ways to stay connected and grounded. I also provide support after death as families move through early grief and begin planning memorial or funeral services. End-of-Life Doula Care is a holistic and compassionate resource for everyone touched by this transition, not just the person at the center of it.
