Why Become an End-of-Life Doula

WHY BECOME AN END-OF-LIFE DOULA?

Perhaps you’re reading this because you feel the calling to be of service to the dying. Perhaps your own life experiences have led you to an expanded curiosity about what is possible for end-of-life care. Perhaps like us, you too envision a world where people can die in a way that is right for them, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or financial status. Perhaps you find yourself here for all of these reasons or others.

Serving as an end-of-life doula can make a huge difference in the lives of dying people and their loved ones. It is not because you will always help make the process—or at least moments of it—beautiful and peaceful; although that can happen. But because even in the inevitable messiness and suffering of dying you can walk alongside people in a way that allows them to get back up after breaking down. To find a way through their pain to accepting the inevitability and naturalness of dying. To return to the bedside with a renewed tenderness and compassion. To find a richer vein of meaning in what can be so hard to go through and to witness. These are the gifts doulas bring to the dying.

From our years of service as doulas, and from what those we train have told us, we know that becoming and serving as an end-of-life doula is amazing, rewarding work. It is an honor and a privilege to support and guide people through what is perhaps the most intense and intimate time in their lives. This is why thousands of people before you have chosen to enter this relatively new and life-altering work. Together we are changing the way people die, and therefore the way we live.