End of Life Doula
End of Life Doulas are often referred to as Sacred Passage Doulas, Death Doulas, or Soul Midwives.
My intention is to walk beside you, as your companion and guide.
What is an End of Life Doula?
An End of Life Doula is similar to a Birth Doula. Just as Birth Doulas help prepare and support families in the birthing process, End of Life Doulas help prepare and support families before, during and after the dying process.
End of Life Doulas are often referred to as Sacred Passage Doulas, Death Doulas, or Soul Midwives.
Pediatric End of Life Guidance and Support…
Bonnie has worked with many children and their families throughout her career and has supported them in various capacities. Bonnie also volunteers in the pediatric palliative care program and hospice at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has been privileged to provide support for families navigating their child’s critical illness or death. She has witnessed the overwhelm parents experience day to day as they care for their child while making difficult decisions. Balancing wanting to offer their child the best chance possible for a healthy life, while weighing the effects of difficult treatments. Parents also have the weight of balancing work and home life. Often there are other children at home to think about and care for.
Once medical treatments are no longer effective, parents are faced with the pain of knowing that their child will eventually die. This is an unbelievable pain they never thought they’d face. Ultimately, they are faced with more decisions. How do they want their child to live while preparing for them to die? What quality of life do they hope for their child towards the end of their life? If the child is of age to voice their wishes, what do they want?
Just as parents plan for the birth of their child, it is equally important to consciously plan for their death. Although this is something they never thought they would have to do. In a loving way, parents are able to offer the child and family a beautiful gift. A gift of a gentle and compassionate death.
Bonnie’s intention is to walk beside families on this journey. To help create a safe passage for their child to live and die peacefully. To help guide parents so that they’re prepared as possible and able to be there fully to support their child and family. Through her support, parents have the peace of knowing that they lovingly cared for their child throughout their final journey.
End of Life Guidance and Support for Adults…
Bonnie also guides families as they prepare for the death of an adult loved one. She understands loss, as her brother and father died suddenly when she was a teenager. Bonnie remembers vividly not being able to tell them she loved them or say goodbye.
Bonnie offers support and resources to help families navigate end of life decisions. She also supports their loved one in consciously creating their most authentic life and death, while they’re still able. The gift in planning for the end of life is time…precious time, to plan, speak what’s in your heart, while consciously living the remaining time together.
“End-of-Life Doulas (EOLDs) are non-medical companions to the dying and their families. Doulas do not take the place of hospice personnel; rather, they complement other services that a dying person and their family may be receiving, including hospice or palliative care. They provide a wide range of holistic services, including physical, emotional, spiritual and practical support. EOLDs may work with families from initial diagnosis through bereavement.”
The NHPCO End-of-Life Doula Advisory Council
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
End of Life Planning
Culturally, we’ve forgotten that death is as sacred as birth. It’s time to bring it back into view and begin to normalize conversations about death and dying. Talking about death helps us be present to our life. We are all going to die…we just don’t know when. Many are afraid to talk about death and often fear death at the end of their life. This does not have to be…we can do death better.
How would it be to plan for your death, whenever it may occur, so that you can then go on and live your life fully? Whether you’re 20 or 80, it’s time to begin having these important conversations.
Through the process of End of Life Planning, you’ll explore and identify…
Important end of life documents
Where you want to be when you’re dying?
How do you want to be cared for?
Who do you want with you? Who don’t you want with you?
How would you like your body to be taken care of after you die?
What type of funeral or celebration would you want?
Bonnie offers Conscious Living & Dying Coaching sessions for individuals who are inspired to live life with intention, no matter how young or old.
Bonnie’s coaching sessions offer an opportunity to look at your life with eyes wide open to possibilities. Too many wait until they’ve receive a terminal diagnosis and at the end of their life say “I wish I had…” Don’t wait until the end and be filled with regret! It’s never too late to make intentional changes in your life so that you begin to live life fully, and prepare for your death when it’s time.
Conscious Living & Dying Support
What if you knew you only had 3 months to live? What would you do or not do?
Often, we don’t think about our death until it’s upon us.
How would your life be different if you knew you had limited time left?
The idea of death gives us a nudge to live in the moment…to not take life for granted.
As you begin to explore your thoughts about death and how you want to live, you uncover what really matters to you.
My Conscious Living & Dying Coaching offers you an opportunity to reflect on your current life, and imagine how you’d like it be.
You’re guided through a process to help you create a vision for your future and specific action steps to help you achieve your most authentic life!
By exploring five different domains, you’ll begin to discern what’s important to you and what’s not. From that perspective you’re able to intentionally create the life that you want.
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start…anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.