When you hear the word “doula” the first thing that comes to mind is birth. A death doula just meets you at the other end. Doula might be defined as “woman servant” however, to clear things up, there are men that practice as well. Our first question is, how do you prepare your death plan? Not just a will saying where everything goes, but a plan that tells your family how you want to be taken care of in your last moments and after.
Our guest for episode 163 will teach us why it’s important.
Jude Higgins is Utah’s premier End of Life Doula. She owns HELD, which is based in Salt Lake City. Jude has lived many lives; as a ballet dancer, an anthropologist with a focus in museum studies, an archeologist with a focus on dead animals, and now a death doula. After going through the course to become an end of life doula, Jude decided with her background in education it was time to start her own HELD training.
Jude explained to us that there are 5 purposes of an end of life doula. The first is to hold space. You are not medically trained, you do not administer any kind of medical relief. You are present in the client and families life who is transitioning. An End of Life Doula’s responsibility is also to,
- Assist in legacy work. This could be assisting in writing down or recording your memories, creating something that will represent you and your family, and so on.
- A death doula will walk the person transitioning through releasing any type of guilt, shame, regret, and unfinished business.
- Creating a vigil plan. How do you want your final days to be? Do you want anyone in the room and around? Do you want them touching you? What kind of smells do you want present? Do you want religious symbols? What about music? *These are just a few things discussed.*
- Finally, an end of life doula can assist in creating a death plan.
Here is a great video from Caitlin Doughty, a green mortician and founder of The Good Death and Ask a Mortician. She explains a bit of what a death doula can do.
Jude offers classes to be certified that a person might be a doula for their family and community. She wanted to create smaller classes. These courses cover how to communicate and hold space. Jude teaches how to ask open ended questions, to sit and listen, and getting the clients and students to grounded clarity. Jude’s up coming courses are August 16,17,18 2019 and September 13,14,15 2019. You can find more about HELD on their Facebook page and the website.
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Music By: Folk Hogan. Bootleggers Dance.