Deathwalker:

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?

Where does death midwifery support the hospice system and those enrolled within it?

Who has been historically responsible for care of the dead and why do we now feel urgency at the time of death?

What are the basics of the American Funeral industry?

Why are after-death rites and ritual important?

Are home funerals legal? How are home funerals supportive to communities?

How do deathwalkers assist in preparation of the body?

Who can be served by ecological deathcare?

What is grief? Who are the bereaved?

How do we culturally support those experiencing bereavement & grief?

Who needs grief support from deathwalkers?

What should we expect from grieving clients?

How does ritual allow us to process and tend to our own grief as end-of-life professionals?

Why is it necessary to offer community grief tending opportunities?

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?