DEATH & GRIEF CARE

As a death & grief doula, I provide emotional, spiritual & energetic care and death education to the dying person and their family and loved ones.

I aim to bring the same sacred atmosphere
that welcomes a new baby into the world to the dying process.

I work with people who have (mostly) accepted that they are nearing the end of life, and are interested in finding more consciousness, clarity and loving togetherness around the experience of living and dying.  I also support caregivers and families while they navigate the waters of saying goodbye to someone they love.

I can be woven in at any time. 
I work with people who are nearing the end of life, people processing a new diagnosis, or people planning and contemplating their vision for their end of life experience. My support can look many different ways depending on what you need.

I try to lovingly, gently make more space for grief. Grief is the way through, even if it means bracing for an unbearable sorrow, perhaps even a kind of sorrow that we can’t imagine surviving.  Grief is also a physical phenomenon - it affects our brain chemistry and our bodies - so I offer care for bodies during times of death and grieving too.

Urgent Needs: If you have an urgent death or grief care need give me a call and I will get back to you within 24 hrs, but usually same day. 781-254-5305

What does this look like?

I offer EDUCATION about the end of life process

  • What to expect in the dying stages as the body shuts down — so that as caregivers (and dying people) we can be more prepared mentally and emotionally. Knowledge can make the dying process feel less mysterious, more natural, and less scary.

  • Support to discuss end of life wishes, values and goals. Support to use those wishes and goals to make medical and end-of-life decisions that are in alignment them (I don’t give medical advice)

  • Discussing post-death plans, funerals and memorials, burial options. I’m a wealth of information about end-of-life options - perhaps some you never knew existed!

  • Support to arrange an on-going network of care around the family — additional resources like grief counseling, massage and bodywork, organizing meals, help from close friends and family members, etc.

I offer CARE

  • Care for the heart - the web of grief, anger, numbness, joy, relief, exhaustion, and all that comes up

  • Care for the body - to support the nervous system through the heartbreak, stress, exhaustion, etc

  • Care for the soul - what questions arise from our souls during this time?

  • Care for the family unit while you navigate this season of your lives and the shift in your family constellation

What I don’t offer:  MEDICAL support, advice, or home health aid services

I bring with me my entire toolbox of resources and techniques from my energy medicine practice

How does this work?

First step: We talk on the phone. I can learn more about your needs, and you can ask questions. Schedule that call here, or call me at 781-254-5305 if it’s more urgent.

Home Visits

I come to your home to care for anyone who needs it that day.  This looks different for every person, every family.  My time may be focused around the dying person, or it may be the caregivers or the family who needs it that day.  I love working with kids too. I come well-resourced and full of patience and compassion. I even bring my massage table.

Home visits are typically 1.5 - 2.5 hours - $200

You come to my studio

For some people, it may feel better to get out of the house and come to my studio space. This would be a session for 1 person.

60-90 min - at my studio in Portland, Maine - $150

Virtual sessions

Phone or Zoom. These are especially helpful for check-in’s, education and clients who live further away.

60 min - $120

  • My interest in death care is, in a big way, about midwifing a cultural shift in how we care for one another, how we see ourselves, our lives, our families, our pain and our joy.  It is my honor to care for people as they touch into the sacredness of death in their own way.


    I’ve learned that I’m very calm in times of emotional intensity, even devastating loss. I gravitate towards big emotions. Before studying to be a death doula, I considered a birth doula path as well. I’m deeply interested in our souls’ journeys here - the beginnings and endings being especially powerful.

    In 2024, I began studying with two brilliant death midwives, Narinder Bazen and Olivia Barnham, on all matters related the process of dying, grief and all of its facets, end of life planning, home funerals, and radical studies of death culture in our society through time. I continue to apprentice with Narinder Bazen and I’m grateful for her guidance in my practice.

my magic was never strong enough to manifest the miracles i wanted: to turn back time. to undo harm. to make the unspeakable things safe to say. to catch a spirit as it flies out of this world and weave it back into the body it left behind. what's the use of writing poems if they can't even do that? i wish i could talk to you...
grief tears us away from our faith, but it's grief that brings us back as well. because in our deepest grief we have nowhere else to go. the Buddhist part of me knows that in the paradox, enlightenment is born. when you fell through a crack in the world and disappeared, i started meditating again. i lit candles every night...
but the Christian part of me knew that the secret of grace is choosing to believe. the secret of resilience is the art of surrender.
i wish you were here. i'd tell you all the things i've learned about hope, and forgiveness, and holding on while letting go. our world keeps breaking, over and over again. i have no choice but to believe that a new one is being born.


~ Kai Cheng Thom, Falling Back in Love with Being Human