END-OF-LIFE DOULA TRAINING
COST: $895
DISCOUNTS: 5% for Tier 2 and 3 Members, 15% for Student or Military
Previously trained INELDA Doulas may take this training for a reduced fee of $225 and a current membership. Current INELDA Certified Doulas with a membership may take this training free of charge.
- SCHOLARSHIPS: Available
- ONLINE PREWORK: estimated 10-12 hours
- CLASSROOM HOURS: 24 hours live
- ONLINE POSTWORK: estimated 3-5 hours of independent exercise & discussion forum
- FORMATS OFFERED: multiple options, see below
- PREREQUISITE: None, open to all
- REQUIREMENTS: Internet access, computer or tablet with audio & video capabilities.
- CONTACT HOURS FOR NURSES: Optional; 40 hours at the cost of $90
You can also attend one of free our DISCOVERY CALLS to learn more about becoming a doula and our training.
Death plays a role in all of our lives. We at INELDA believe that having some education around death and dying is important. As non-medical companions, doulas have the opportunity to provide holistic support encompassing emotional, physical, educational and practical care to anyone, in any environment, who requests their care. Doulas can offer resources to help the dying person, along with their chosen circle of care to make informed decisions in a supportive manner.
Our training offers doulas a foundational approach to providing care at the end-of-life. Co-created by many voices and lived experience, our training welcomes anyone to learn how to be a doula.
But there is a deep historical and spiritual tradition of doing death differently—of supporting and guiding the dying and their caregivers in a way that allows for inner engagement with the richness of their lives, and often, a more peaceful death. This path of service goes back thousands of years and has been revitalized in the modern end-of-life doula movement.
WE WELCOME YOU TO:
- Investigate your feelings around mortality and end-of-life
- Learn the INELDA Doula Approach
- Discover current options of EOL in your communities
- Practice listening as the backdrop of doula care
- Practice sharing cultural perspectives around death and dying
- Learn about the individuality of death
- Support the self-determination of each individual, circle of care, and community
- Understand the possible trajectories dying and physical signs and symptoms
- Learn that doula care is vast spectrum of offerings
- Learn basic grief literacy
- Educate your communities around end-of-life at an individual and system level
TRAINING APPROACH
- 10-12 hours of recorded prework to build foundational knowledge of doula roles
- Access to a peer-to-peer learning space
- Situational learning practice, demonstrations, and role plays
- Discussion, contemplative content, and journaling
- Slide and video content to enhance learning
- Supportive printed materials
- Mindfulness exercises
- Small group and pairs exercises
- 3-5 hours of independent postwork exercises
CLASS FORMATS
- IN PERSON
- ONLINE IMMERSIVE – 4 consecutive daily sessions
- ONLINE – 4 sessions with days in between
- ONLINE EXTENDED – 6 sessions over 3 weeks
AN INVITATION…
The intention of INELDA’s End-of-Life Doula Training is to empower individuals to become self-aware stewards of deathcare, who foster autonomous choice-making at the end of life. In this way, doulas work synonymously with the goals of trauma-informed care and palliative care. We invite doulas to participate in the movements for transformative justice, working first to normalize death and dying within themselves and then educating others. Doulas can act as bridges and gap-fillers in systems marked by inequity and oppression within our communities.
We prepare learners to move receptively into their communities to provide person-specific care at the end-of-life and act as an advocate for death-awareness. Learners will have a foundation to offer doula care and enter INELDA’s certification program. Training will also prepare participants to take NEDA’s proficiency badge exam. We look forward to meeting you and growing together!
end-of-life doula training calendar
Our upcoming End-of-Life Doula Trainings are listed below. We open new trainings the middle of each month. In 2025 we will offer at least two trainings a month and eight in-person trainings for the year. If you want to search for other events, use the “Search Events” bar below or click on any of the filters shown.
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EDUCATORS
Our growing team of educators draws from decades of work as end-of-life doulas. Their insights and stories from the bedside capture the essence of doula work and inspire attendees to walk with them on the same path. They also have extensive backgrounds in trauma-informed care, nursing, social work, spiritual care, grief, the healing arts, adult education, and hospice administration. Every one of them has also completed or is engaged in, our doula certification process.
END-OF-LIFE DOULA TRAINING FAQs
There are no prerequisites to taking the course. However, the first part of the course involves watching four hours of video instruction and doing a series of activities. It will take you ten to twelve hours to complete all of the prework. You will receive access to the prework one week before the first day of training.
Access to the prework videos and activities, a mailed physical workbook, as well as a PDF version of the workbook.
We currently offer several different formats for the course. Some concentrate the learning into fewer fuller days, while others have more but shorter sessions. Each format lasts for 25 hours of PowerPoint presentations, stories from the bedside, and experiential exercises. In addition, there will be varying hours of optional, but highly recommended Review and Reprocessing sessions for the offerings with shorter sessions. Check out our training calendar here for specific dates and times.
INELDA’s end-of-life doula training provides 40 Nursing Contact Hours for a charge of $90; you can purchase them at the time you register for the course. If you have already registered for the training course and now would like to pay for the Nursing Contact Hours you can do that by clicking here.
The training course is intended to give you a thorough grounding in the knowledge and skills you will need to effectively support and guide a dying person and their loved ones through the dying process. You will learn the INELDA foundational model, how to be a deep active listener, use guided imagery and ritual, and much more. You will participate in intensive exercises to practice the techniques that will prepare you to provide person-centered care. For more details, see the description of the training course here.
No, prior clinical training is not necessary to become an EOL doula. If you are a compassionate person who can truly listen to another human being without judgment, and you feel a calling to this work, then you can learn to be an end-of-life doula.
That depends as this is a relatively new field. So, earning enough of an income to support a family if there is no other source of income may be challenging. We recommend that you gain experience working at the bedside before starting your own private practice. We also recommend that you have another form of income to support you during the early days of your practice. You will need to think out of the box about your work to build community awareness about your services and to increase your earnings. Nonetheless, many of our trainees have started their own doula business or joined an existing collaborative or collective.
This course touches on some intense experiences and requires an emotional openness and vulnerability when you engage in the exercises. If you feel emotionally fragile now, this probably isn’t the best time to take the course. But only you can judge whether or not you can regulate your emotions enough to explore what it means to die and how we move through the process of dying. If you have any doubts you can do this, then wait until your inner life is more settled to take the course, or reach out to us at [email protected] to discuss your situation.
We offer a 15% discount for military and veterans. To receive this discount, please send a copy of your military, veteran status government issued ID to [email protected]
This discount will apply to the full cost of the course, and cannot be combined with any membership discount.
We offer a 15% discount for students. To receive this discount, please provide a copy of your current enrollment and student ID. Documents can be sent to [email protected]
This discount will apply to the full cost of the course, and cannot be combined with any membership discount.