Services & Rates
As an end of life doula, I provide comprehensive Advanced Care Planning, compassionate Companioning, and attentive Vigil/Respite services to guide individuals and their loved ones through the transition with dignity and peace. I also provide informative and interactive educational group workshops through my role as a Willow End of Life Educator™.
End of Life Doula Services
Advanced Care Planning
Put simply this means deciding on a person who will speak “as you” should you not be able to speak for yourself in matters concerning your ongoing health care. Sudden, unexpected changes in health status at any age can require a trusted individual to step up and make health-related decisions on your behalf if you can’t speak for yourself.
As a Doula I can help you decide what key values about your health that you want upheld. I can guide you through a series of steps that will allow you to determine what you want (or don’t want) to happen, and more importantly, how to choose the person you will nominate as being in charge of those decisions.
Companioning
Following a serious or potentially life limiting diagnosis you may need someone outside your family or friend circle to guide you through discussions about end of life planning.
This can include:
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determining your beliefs and values around end of life
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how to have difficult discussions with family members about your end of life decisions
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gathering your thoughts/wishes for disposition of your remains (e.g. traditional burial, green burial, cremation, terramation)
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end of life rituals (celebration of life, traditional funeral, secular gatherings to honour your life)
Respite/Vigil
Doulas can serve an important role at the very end stage of life. If you have friends and family to serve in that capacity there may be gaps in their availability to be by your bedside. Doulas can step in to sit by the bedside for respite support when others cannot or doulas can offer to provide shifts in a round-the-clock vigil, so a loved one is not left alone in the very end stages of life.
Rates
End of Life Educational Workshops
My role as an End of Life Educator combines my interests in advanced care planning with my passion as an educator. I offer group informational and interactive workshops on Advanced Care Planning, Legacy Work, and, more recently, navigating MAID.
Since retiring from a wonderful 30-year teaching career in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, I've completed training as a Willow End of Life Educator™ where I now develop and present interactive workshops that engage an audience of 10 to 40 participants in a variety of end of life topics.
My workshops are designed to get people talking, reflecting, and completing end of life planning documents. These topics can feel daunting at the onset, but my goal is to create a very safe and welcoming environment that encourages people to explore the many feelings which inevitably arise when discussing these topics.
Workshop topics can include:
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Advanced Care Planning
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Preparing Sunshine Coast Green Sleeve Documents
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Creating Legacy Love Letters
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Navigating MAID Decisions
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Preparing for difficult discussions with friends & family
Workshop Rates
Single Workshop
$250 + GST for basic 1-hour workshop on desired topic
Workshop Series
$150 + GST per workshop in series
+ administrative costs incurred
(e.g. printing of handouts)
"There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.
They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.
They are the messengers of overwhelming grief,
of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."
― Washington Irving