Farewell Apprenticeship

Farewell Apprenticeship is more than a death doula training program, it’s a curriculum that encourages you to develop a trusting and dynamic relationship with Death. How can you walk alongside others who are journeying to places you are afraid to go?

Farewell Apprenticeship Core Components:

Personalized Instruction

Each of the 11 lessons asks a question about Death and how we understand Death, personally & collectively. In 90-minute one-on-one meetings, Jade walks you through the investigation for each question, explaining why it is important and fleshing the slideshow out with stories, examples, and reflections.

Diverse Knowledge

Following the lesson instruction, each apprentice has as long as they need to dig into the rich resources for each module. Drawing from multiple sources and including diverse media (video documentary, TedTalks, articles, book chapters, podcasts, fine art, and music), you will build your own knowledge bank to answer each question.

Hands-On Practice

Alongside your coursework, you’ll also join the cohort of volunteer death doulas serving at our local non-profit hospice. Jade will train you in death doula skills in-person and be available to work alongside you as you hone your own offerings. Each lesson directs multiple ways to practice these skills with as much support as you need.

I believe that death midwifery is an ancient and sacred tradition honored through lineage.  My goal, as a death midwife, is to teach my craft to those called to learn it in individualized mentorship.  The foundation of our work together will be transparency, integrity and connection.  Through these values, we will pass my lineage of death midwifery into your hands to build your personal relationship with Death and to serve your community.

The 11 Topics of the Farewell Apprenticeship:

  • What landscape (of death care) are you called into?

    How is our cultural view of death impacting us collectively?

    Where is the system functioning well and where is it deficient?

    How does the death doula bridge the gaps in the modern health care system?

    Where is our own current relationship with death and how do we deepen that as a spiritual exercise?

  • What grief do you carry and how do you tend it?

    What are your unexamined fears and beliefs about death?

    How we are impacted by our collective and ambiguous grief?

    Where can we heal ancestral wounds?

    What cultural traditions impact how we experience death and grief?

    How can Deathwalkers cultivate the role of ritual and ceremony in death and grief spaces?

  • How do values & ethics create the container for safe Deathwalking?

    What are energy fields and the luminous body?

    Why is physical touch a powerful tool?

    When is active listening and holding space enough?

    Where do self-care & appropriate boundaries support Deathwalkers?

    Who can utilize ritual cleansing & ceremony?

  • What is the role of advance care planning and how does Deathwalking facilitate?

    What are the necessary components of planning for comprehensive end of life care?

    What is vigil and how do we prepare for it?

    When does life review serve well?

    Who does a legacy project?

  • How do deathwalkers stand at the threshold of death?

    Can deathwalkers create a container for fear and sorrow?

    How do deathwalkers understand pain and suffering?

    What does the spiritual process of dying involve?

    When can deathwalkers detect the physical process of dying (birth/death, little chick analogy, terminal agitation)?

    When can meditations, rituals, and practices relieve death anxiety and/or offering healing?

  • What does unexpected and traumatic death look like (medical, accident, catastrophe, homicide)?

    How can Deathwalkers support pregnancy loss, stillbirth, infant, & pediatric death?

    When can Deathwalkers support families facing suicide and drug-related death?

    Why is Medical Aid in Dying & Death with Dignity important?

    Who chooses to initiate a Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking & why?

    Why do Deathwalkers advocate for equitable access to death care?

  • Review what we’ve covered so far

    Establish where we are right now

    Follow curiosity about what we will offer next & create a community offering

    Connect with community

    Prepare for proficiency exam

    Begin to create your practice

  • What is the basic framework of the hospice care team?

    How is hospice funded, monitored and intended to function?

    How can Deathwalkers educate and empower families to receive the best care possible? (*family care team )

    What are hospice’s blind spots that impact the quality of care?

    What to do when hospice can’t help enough? (allieviating discomfort, supporting caregiver, record keeping, ritual & spiritual care for families)

  • How do we slow urgency around the moment of death?

    What needs to be done immediately and what can wait? Who does what?

    What is the basic framework of the American Funeral industry?

    Why are after-death rites and ritual so powerful?

    Who is protected by the legalities and logistics of home vigils and funerals?

    How do Deathwalkers guide families to prepare a body?

    Where is the role of the Deathwalker most pivotal in the moments after death?

  • Wha are the types of grief & how do each impact us?

    What to expect from grieving clients?

    Is the current model of grief supporting us all? Who falls through the cracks?

    Why is it necessary to offer community grief tending opportunities?

    Where does death work overlap with grief work?

  • What are business basics for establishing a private practice?

    When do you need insurance, contracts and billing system?

    What does a sustainable death care practice looks like?

    How to design your services?

    What can community offerings do for your practice?

    Why are self-care and professional boundaries vital to your work?

In-person Apprenticeship includes:

  • 6 hours of personalized instruction and mentorship with Jade (each month),

  • 10 hours assigned coursework (reading, listening, practicing, videos) each month,

  • Supervised hospice volunteer work,

  • Opportunities to shadow Jade,

  • Referrals from Jade for potential clients,

  • Mentorship in establishing community offerings & business basics,

  • Local cohort of apprentices for connections.

There are 11 lessons in Farewell Apprenticeship, $350/lesson. Each lesson is designed to be completed in one month but there is no commitment or pay ahead fee, learn as much as you need at your own pace and pay as you go.

Meet the Farewell Apprentices