Preparing for one’s final days can be overwhelming, alienating, and frightening, especially when the body and mind begin to shift away from the fuller capabilities on which we’ve long relied.

Uncertainties and unknowns can loom everywhere, from changes in our health to what happens to our physical and spiritual selves when we die. There are dozens of decisions to be made that can range from the practical (estate planning, where we elect to receive care, maintaining our household) to the personal (how we’d like to be remembered, which people we’d like to be with us at our final breath, tending to spiritual traditions). And this is all happening at a time when you are likely observing a mix of new and familiar emotions competing in your heart: fear, relief, humor, confusion, gratitude, anger, love, anxiety, and more. 

Still, facing the end of life also can be an experience that is deeply intimate, joyful, insightful, connecting, and uniquely restorative. As a Phoenix-area death doula and funeral celebrant, I have boundless respect for the divine affair of dying, drawing from my hands-on experience as a caregiver, companion, mortuary employee, and hospice volunteer. My role is to meet you where you are in your death journey, hold space with empathy and deep active listening, and help you to discover, restore, and maintain agency during this profound time.