Podcasts about national home funeral alliance

painkillersTending Our Dead Ourselves with Joe Orso and Susan Nesbit Joe Orso talks to death doula Susan Nesbit about the many gifts that come with tending the bodies of our deceased loved ones at home. Their conversation covers home vigils, home burials, home funerals, washing the body after death, and how these practices have historically been done by families and communities, not professionals. They also discuss how death, like birth, has become a highly medicalized experience, in which pain-killers and high costs are the norm. Susan, who doesn't take money for her death doula practice, helped found Threshold Care Circle, an all-volunteer organization in southwest Wisconsin that integrates after-death care into family and community life. She and other volunteers supported Joe's family in doing home-based care after his father's death last winter. Threshold Care Circle: https://www.thresholdcarecircle.org/ National Home Funeral Alliance: https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/ National End-of-Life Doula Alliance: https://www.nedalliance.org/ The Oar and the Umbrella (where you can find Joe's "Home Burial" essay series): https://oarandumbrella.substack.com/t/home-burial-essays-after-my-fathers

Anne-Marie's is the founder of Village Deathcare 501c3 whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into community. Of Irish Celtic and Finnish Sámi (indigenous Finno-Ugric) roots, she draws from her work as a death doula, a nurse assistant, life-long meditator, Reiki Master Teacher and mother of three. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons facilitator, Life Cycle Celebrant (certificate in funerals) and trained Home Funeral Guide. She is a core designer and advisor to a virtual reality therapeutics company developing a program for those working through end-of-life challenges. She lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where she practices magic, community deathcare, trains her Siberian Husky and delights in her family's love. Anne-Marie's first book Death Nesting which was self-published in 2019 won an Independent Publisher Book Award. Death Nesting was picked up by the publishing house Inner Traditions and will be release in 2023. She is a Reiki Master Teacher, meditation and basic goodness instructor and has nearly two decades of training in Shambhala Buddhist teachings and working with children and teens (ages 3-18) as a teacher at Karmê Chöling Meditation Center. She has completed Dying With Confidence training in Phowa with Anyen Rinpoche, “This Sacred Journey: Living Purposefully and Dying Fearlessly” with Pema Chodron, is a Chöd practioner, and is certified through Lama Tsultrim Allione as a facilitator in the Buddhist track of Feeding Your Demons, where her focus is on opening conversations with death. Anne-Marie has passed the National Home Funeral Alliance proficiency test, and regularly supports families through Family Directed funerals, home burial and green burial. https://www.annemariekeppel.com/bio/ #death #doulas #spirits #guides #heaven YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLiberatedHealer IG: theliberatedhealer IG: Gina Cavalier Website: www.theliberatedhealer.com Facebook: @theliberatedhealer Linked-IN: @theliberatedhealer Tiktoq: ginacavalier_Liberated Twitter: GinaMCavalier Rumble: TheLiberatedHealer Link Tree: linktr.ee/gina_the_liberated_healer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Renowned Death Doula Anne-Marie Keppel joins me in this episode to discuss her new book, Death Nesting: The Heart-Centered Practices of a Death Doula. Anne-Marie brings new-age spiritual aspects and practices to support the modern death doula. She founded Village Deathcare, whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into the community. Her book contains advice and experiences from various spiritual and religious traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, and Catholicism. It also includes support for people working as, or thinking about becoming a death doula, plus invaluable advice and mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality. Anne-Marie explains: What exactly does a death doula do? Anne-Marie explains what the word doula means. Why talking about death is essential for vital people. Differences between Ancient and Modern Death Doulas. Mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality. And why it is important to do this. Death douling for our animals and pets.   If you loved this episode, please subscribe to my podcast, write a review and follow me on Instagram. You can find me online at tatyannawright.com and theconsciousdiva.com  You can also find everything we discuss in this episode on the show page notes.  Thank you very much for listening. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.   More about Anne-Marie Keppel: https://www.annemariekeppel.com BIO: Anne-Marie Keppel is the founder of Village Deathcare 501c3 whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into the community. Of Irish Celtic and Finnish Sámi (indigenous Finno-Ugric) roots, she draws from her work as a death doula, a nurse assistant, a life-long meditator, Reiki Master Teacher and mother of three. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons facilitator, Life Cycle Celebrant (certificate in funerals) and trained Home Funeral Guide. Anne-Marie has passed the National Home Funeral Alliance proficiency test and regularly supports families through Family Directed funerals, home burial and green burial. 

The death of Leilani Maxera's grandmother changed her, propelling her into a career path she hadn't predicted. Now she's a social worker, a home funeral advocate, and a grief worker supporting families who have experienced Medical Aid in Dying.  Hospice was never offered to her grandmother, and this made Leilani an outspoken advocate for advance care planning and end of life care. She's also a spokesperson for home funerals, and sits on the board of the National Home Funeral Alliance. Leilani provides capacity evaluations for people who are considering Medical Aid in Dying. Those evaluations are required by the state of Hawaii as part of the MAID process. She's working to correct the misinformation out there about MAID and to reduce the stigma attached to a MAID death.   As the owner of Kaipuokaualoku in Hawaii, Leilani provides individual counseling, grief counseling, and grief support for individuals who have experienced Medical Aid in Dying with a loved one. A safe, nonjudgmental space to talk is important for someone who's had a MAID loss.   Read more about Leilani and the services that she offers at Kaipuokaualoku at leilanimaxera.com. Find information about Leilani's Medical Aid in Dying Bereavement group here. Connect with the National Home Funeral Alliance at homefuneralalliance.org. Get your copy of the NHFA Home Funeral Guidebook (available on a pay-what-you-can basis) by clicking here.   Book podcast host Helen Bauer to speak at your event or conference by sending an email to helen@theheartofhospice.com.  Follow The Heart of Hospice on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  Connect with The Heart of Hospice podcast on The Whole Care Network, along with a host of other caregiving podcasts by clicking here.  Find more podcast episodes from The Heart of Hospice at The Heart of Hospice Podcast (theheartofhospice.com) 

The death of Leilani Maxera's grandmother changed her, propelling her into a career path she hadn't predicted. Now she's a social worker, a home funeral advocate, and a grief worker supporting families who experienced Medical Aid in Dying.  Hospice was never offered to her grandmother, and this made Leilani an outspoken advocate for advance care planning and end of life care.  She's also a spokesperson for home funerals, and sits on the board of the National Home Funeral Alliance.  Leilani provides capacity evaluations for people who are considering Medical Aid in Dying.  Those evaluations are required by the state of Hawaii as part of the MAID process.  She's working to correct the misinformation out there about MAID and to reduce the stigma attached to a MAID death.   As the owner of Kaipuokaualoku in Hawaii, Leilani provides individual counseling, grief counseling, and grief support for individuals who have experienced Medical Aid in Dying with a loved one.  A safe, nonjudgmental space to talk is important for someone who's had a MAID loss.   Read more about Leilani and the services that she offers at Kaipuokaualoku at leilanimaxera.com. Find information about Leilani's Medical Aid in Dying Bereavement group here. Connect with the National Home Funeral Alliance at homefuneralalliance.org. Get your copy of the NHFA Home Funeral Guidebook (available on a pay-what-you-can basis) by clicking here.   Book podcast host Helen Bauer to speak at your event or conference by sending an email to helen@theheartofhospice.com.  Follow The Heart of Hospice on Facebook,  Instagram, and LinkedIn.  Connect with The Heart of Hospice podcast on The Whole Care Network, along with a host of other caregiving podcasts by clicking here.  Find more podcast episodes from The Heart of Hospice at The Heart of Hospice Podcast (theheartofhospice.com)         

The death of Leilani Maxera's grandmother changed her, propelling her into a career path she hadn't predicted. Now she's a social worker, a home funeral advocate, and a grief worker supporting families who have experienced Medical Aid in Dying.  Hospice was never offered to her grandmother, and this made Leilani an outspoken advocate for advance care planning and end of life care.  She's also a spokesperson for home funerals, and sits on the board of the National Home Funeral Alliance.  Leilani provides capacity evaluations for people who are considering Medical Aid in Dying.  Those evaluations are required by the state of Hawaii as part of the MAID process.  She's working to correct the misinformation out there about MAID and to reduce the stigma attached to a MAID death.   As the owner of Kaipuokaualoku in Hawaii, Leilani provides individual counseling, grief counseling, and grief support for individuals who have experienced Medical Aid in Dying with a loved one.  A safe, nonjudgmental space to talk is important for someone who's had a MAID loss.   Read more about Leilani and the services that she offers at Kaipuokaualoku at leilanimaxera.com. Find information about Leilani's Medical Aid in Dying Bereavement group here. Connect with the National Home Funeral Alliance at homefuneralalliance.org. Get your copy of the NHFA Home Funeral Guidebook (available on a pay-what-you-can basis) by clicking here.   Book podcast host Helen Bauer to speak at your event or conference by sending an email to helen@theheartofhospice.com.  Follow The Heart of Hospice on Facebook,  Instagram, and LinkedIn.  Connect with The Heart of Hospice podcast on The Whole Care Network, along with a host of other caregiving podcasts by clicking here.  Find more podcast episodes from The Heart of Hospice at The Heart of Hospice Podcast (theheartofhospice.com) 

Saturday is Earth Day, a day that's been observed annually since 1970 to draw attention to the problems facing the global environment. Today on Midday, two environmental movements that are rapidly gaining interest and adherents: the green burial movement and sustainable fashion. A little later we'll talk about how the Johns Hopkins Women's Board is giving new life to old clothes, and cutting down on the environmental impact of discarding textiles. But we begin today with a conversation about green burials, which perhaps can be best described by listing what's not involved rather than what is. No embalming, no concrete grave liners, no non-biodegradable caskets. Instead, bodies are returned to the earth naturally, with no deleterious effect on the environment. Jennifer Downs is the founder and chair of the Green Burial Association of Maryland, or GBAM. She joins Tom in Studio A… Lee Webster joins us as well. She's a past president of the Green Burial Council. She's served in leadership of the National Home Funeral Alliance, and she helped found the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and Conservation Burial Alliance. She's also written several books about green burials. Lee Webster joins us on Zoom from Holderness, New Hampshire.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have probably all seen the late stage capitalism memes by now: "Stop glamorizing the grind and start glamorizing whatever this is" is a famous one, though there are many more. In this episode we talk about the societal shift towards glamorizing doing nothing. We talk with Winx Vestrit, a friend who works with Isabel on the board of the National Home Funeral Alliance, about a tweet that really resonated with them which goes: "The girl boss is dead, long live the girl moss (lying on the floor of the forest and being absorbed back into nature)". So much of the rhetoric around burnout and rest in the mainstream culture has been about resting for the purpose of getting back to being productive, but there is also a more anticapitalist movement towards resting for resting's sake, because you as a human deserve rest, or for the purpose of healing from a society that never taught us how to have work-life balance. We talk about how our current mindset will potentially harm us in the future if the economy does begin to shift towards mass unemployment with the automation revolution and what we would all choose to do if we were truly given the choice to do whatever we want. The reset afforded to many remote workers by the pandemic allowed so many people to look inward and think about topics like gender and the nature of society in ways that our parents' generations and many generations before them likely did not have the bandwidth or energy to imagine on the scale that we are now as a generation, simply because they were too exhausted at the end of the day from working. Obviously the Girl Moss tweet is a repudiation of modern-day hustle culture, but we also talk about what would happen if we were suddenly thrust back into a state of needing to grapple with nature, such as in the scenarios posed by the world of Station Eleven, a popular fiction book that talks about what would happen if there was a pandemic that wiped out 99% of the global population, or by Tim Urban on a recent episode of the Lex Fridman podcast where they talk about a hypothetical in which a witch came and took away all of our modern-day technology and we had to re-create society with only the knowledge in our heads now. We decided it probably wouldn't hurt to start learning some survival skills. Links: Girl Moss Tweet (the original tweet seems to be deleted so this is a link to a screenshot from another person's Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/p/Cehw4pmNNGe/ Instagram Isabel References with the Frog with Stilettos and a Mushroom Hat: https://www.instagram.com/maybell.eequay/?hl=en KnowYourMeme Article explaining the "Stop Galmorizing the Grind and Start Galmorizing Whatever This Is" Meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stop-glamorizing-the-grind-and-start-glamorizing-whatever-this-is Lex Fridman podcast episode with Tim Urban where they talk about the hypothetical in which a witch takes away all our technology: https://lexfridman.com/tim-urban/ We don't talk about this book explicitly, but much of what we talk about in this episode is also discussed in Tricia Hersey's book, "Rest is Resistance": https://thenapministry.com/ National Home Funeral Alliance: https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/ Music is The Beauty of Maths by Meydän. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/im-the-villain/support

*** No information offered by Cait or myself should be a substitute or replacement for licensed medical or mental health care in any way. In addition, the information and techniques offered or suggested on this podcast do not constitute medical advice. Please seek medical advice from a qualified doctor in the case of serious illness*** If you are in crisis and need immediate support please dial 988 to be connected with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Cait's personal experience with the death by suicide of her best friend, followed two months later by her grandfather's death, is exactly what propelled her curiosity and focus into the unique and vast space of grief, death, and dying. Through that journey, years after, Cait began volunteering with her local hospice and served in her community. During that time she chose to take an end-of-life doula course and continue expanding her theory. A passion for serving folks in the death space developed, deeply. By 2020, the pandemic forced the closure of her in-person business and her full attention turned to supporting folks in the virtual space, knowing that's where many people go to access support + education. Cait's journey has led her into different avenues of death work from sitting at the bedside of those actively dying, to cleaning out homes after a death, to haircuts for those on hospice, to educating hospice teams on what death doulas are, to guiding folks on advance directive creation, to building a digital presence for death workers; truly, the space is vast. Currently, Cait offers digital resources that you can purchase and download on her resource site: deathbysuicideawarecare.com and free education via Instagram and Tik Tok. Join the list on the above website to be notified when the membership launches late summer 2022; the membership will equip folks of all ages with suicide awareness and prevention through a simple process so that they can support people in their circles of care. Cait is proficient and a member with the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, proficient with the National Home Funeral Alliance, and is passionate about participating in continuing education on a vast array of topics, as death is a vast space. To learn more please visit https://www.deathbysuicideawarecare.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deathandgrieftalk/message

Jerrigrace Lyons is a Minister, death midwife, educator, home funeral guide and Reiki Master. She founded the educational non-profit organization, Final Passages in 1995 to inform people about little known funeral options, natural death care rights and practicalities, green burial and the benefits of bringing funerals back into the home and family care.As a pioneer in the new field of home funeral guidance, Lyons has facilitated hundreds of family-directed home funerals, offering choices that specifically address, social, environmental, spiritual and financial needs. She co-authored a complete guidebook, Creating Home Funerals and has appeared on radio, television and in worldwide publications including The Wall Street Journal (front page), USA Today, the NY and LA Times and The London Telegraph. Lyons is featured in the acclaimed POV/PBS Documentary entitled, “A Family Undertaking” and she has also created and developed a 3-tiered certificate program in the field of conscious dying and home funeral guidance called, “Honoring Life's Final Passage”. She is a board member emeritus of the National Home Funeral Alliance and currently serves on the Legislative Committee.Lyons founded Final Passages as a result of the unexpected death of her friend Carolyn Whiting. Because of Carolyn's interest in a natural and conscious approach to death care, she left detailed instructions for a home funeral. Lyons was a participant in Carolyn's home funeral and was profoundly moved by the entire three-day experience. Community participation and ceremony, at home, supported those grieving and allowed more time for closure. The bathing and dressing of her body was performed with dignity and honor by her friends. Barriers of fear and anger were broken down, giving more room for love and celebration through this important passage. This most personal, meaningful, and respectful experience awakened in her a passion to share it with others. She pioneered Final Passages in 1995 to reawaken a choice that our ancestors once held sacred.Websitefinalpassages.orgBookGuidebook for Creating Home Funerals

Diana Lindsay and her friend, home funeral guide Lucinda Herring, share the story of Kelly Lindsay's dying process and the family who gathered to accompany him on his final journey with brain cancer. Here are the links to Healing Circles, the support organization founded by Diana and Kelly: https://healingcircleslangley.org/ and https://healingcirclesglobal.org/#topI mention in the introduction just a few of the things Healing Circles offers, but there is SO much more. It is really worth taking a look!If you're interested in reading Diana and Kelly's book on caregiving and grappling with cancer or any other life-limiting illness you can find it on Amazon. Amazon Smiles will donate to the National Home Funeral Alliance if you select it when ordering. https://smile.amazon.com/Something-More-Than-Hope-Everything/dp/099124270X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=something+more+than+hope+diana&qid=1623966311&s=books&sr=1-1Support the show (https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/donate.html)

A home funeral can be a rich and meaningful experience. The National Home Funeral Alliance offers guidance to help make it happen. Our special guest today is Dani Lavoire, former president of the National Home Funeral Alliance.  Dani is a birth midwife who made a connection between the experiences of birth and death.  The team at the National Home Funeral Alliance provides support for families across the U.S. who would like to have a more personal after-death event.  According to the NHFA website, “it is your right [in all 50 states] to care for your own loved one after death. ​The NHFA is working to make sure communities and families know their rights.”  Personal rituals can be conducted without feeling rushed, or on someone else's timeline.  If you're interested in a home funeral, visit homefuneralalliance.org to get more information.  Check out their podcast - A Path Home, hosted by Sarah Crews, former president of NHFA.  You'll find more support for your end of life experience at theheartofhospice.com, including information about self care, hospice philosophy, and advance care planning.  You'll also find info about Helen Bauer and Jerry Fenter, hosts of The Heart of Hospice podcast.  We're happy to connect with you - you are The Heart of Hospice.    

In this episode, we speak with Death Doula, Karry Sawatsky of Modern Death Care who has dedicated her career to supporting people through their dying time. It's a conversation about reclaiming death and dying, being with grief, the role death can play in us achieving things we previously thought unattainable.  We explore how we can use our grief to be leaders in our community and by having the willingness to give something of ourselves away, we can tap into such a profound and deep part of ourselves. It's also a practical conversation about having the courage to speak to the people we care about the most about their death so we are as prepared as we can be to have to deal with all the nitty-gritty details that can make dealing with the death of a loved one so challenging. This is a fresh and honest conversation about the only thing we can be 100% sure will happen at the end of our lives and hopefully, give you a little inspiration and courage to take one step closer to walking a life rich with more meaning and more purpose.If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @amidehne. I want to invite you to help contribute to this podcast by submitting a question for the Disruptions With Purpose podcast.  All you have to do is go here and submit a question or episode suggestion that could be featured on an upcoming episode. LINKS:Community Death Care is an emerging non-profit group, coming together in response to the needs and interests of Canadians who seek to re-engage with dying and deathcare in more meaningful, holistic, and environmentally sustainable ways!National Home Funeral Alliance is dedicated to increasing access to information related to community-led after-death care. Guest InfoKarry Sawatsky is a death doula and the founder of Modern Death Care located in Elora, Ontario.  Karry offers personal support for individuals and families. She offers guidance in planning as well as support leading up to death, at death and after.Karry came to deathcare through experiencing the deaths of a few close people. She was left with an intuitive sense that there must be another way to do dying, death and bereavement than the current cultural model.This led her to become a Death Doula and founded Modern Deathcare. She is committed to educating the public about the end-of-life options and alternatives that are available and connecting people with resources. She is dedicated to reclaiming community-centred deathcare whereby families are empowered to enact their own end-of-life care if they choose. Karry believes in encouraging cultural re-engagement in dying, death and bereavement and that death planning leads to a meaningful and transformational experience.

Did your grandmother's house have a parlor that was used to care for the dead? Mine did. When the time comes, which do you want: a funeral home or a home funeral? Burial or cremation? Fancy casket or cardboard box? Ashes in an urn or scattered someplace special? Who have you talked to about what you want? No one? I'm not surprised. Death hasn't been a popular topic of conversation -- until now.  This episode explores the national death-positive movement through Death Cafes, Death Doulas, Speaking Grief, the National Home Funeral Alliance, and more. It also includes "The Memory Box." That's a funeral ritual I created to help anyone, especially children, find a way to grieve.  Mentioned in the episode: National Home Funeral Alliance  (This is where you’ll find the Quick Guide to Home Funerals) Speaking Grief    Death Cafe   The International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA)   Mary’s Place (A Center for Grieving Children and Families)   Death’s Summer Coat: What the History of Death and Dying Teaches Us About Life and Living by Brandy Schillace The Celebrant Foundation & Institute    This episode is the 3rd in a series related to funerals. Others are: Ritual Recipes Episode 38 / Funerals for Pets Ritual Recipes Episode 39 / Funerals for the Death of a Marriage  

Host Sarah Crews discusses changes to the funeral landscape since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis in the US with Elizabeth Fournier and Dani LaVoire. Elizabeth is a licensed funeral director in Oregon. Dani, the president of the National Home Funeral Alliance. Here is a link to an article by Josh Slocum, of the Funeral Consumer's Alliance titled, Covid-19 and the dead; facts, not fear.https://funerals.org/covid19-and-the-dead-facts-not-fear/Support the show (https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/donate.html)

Our first live episode from Iona Senior Services features Sally Craig. She talks about the death of her husband, caring for bodies at home after death and dating.  Links: http://crossings.net/ National Home Funeral Alliance

Narinder Bazen is a Death Midwife, Home Funeral Educator and Holistic Death Care Activist. In this episode we talk Kundalini yoga, the gaps in hospice care and how death midwifery helps create more intentionality + care during the final season of life. We discussHow putting yourself under pressure can open up unlimited potentialWhat is death midwifery?Gaps in hospice careThe questions people are afraid to ask around deathWhat she's learned from tending to the dyingReceiving support to do our best workRe-orienting her relationship to money as a spiritual person doing spiritual workEnergetically reading homes + land for healingNarinder Bazen serves in these curious times as a Death Midwife, Home Funeral Educator and Holistic Death Care Activist. She has worked with over a hundred individuals and/or families as a death midwife and home funeral educator. She is NEDA proficient and National Home Funeral Alliance proficient.Through her Death Education classes in Atlanta and via virtual classrooms she's taught hundreds of individuals everything they need to know about Dying in America.  I am passionate about Death Education.In 2018, she created the Nine Keys Death Midwifery Apprenticeship where she trains others who are called to holistic death work and would like to walk with her for a little while to get there. Narinder is also an artist and a dog mom to little Oak. We live in Atlanta and enjoy it so.LINKSIf you enjoyed the episode, check out —Episode w— Lauren Haynes of Wooden Spoon HerbsEpisode w— Felicia RuizMore about our guest —Narinder's websiteNarinder's IG Stay Connected —Subscribe to the home—body podcast wherever you get your listens.join our free home—body PortalMary Grace's websiteLearn more about 1:1 sessionsJoin us for a free class on Taking Care : Pillars for Creation, Circularity + Support — tools to help you design your life with more support and care built in, especially during difficult times. This free class is Friday, March 18 at Noon ET/ 9:00a PT. Sign up here to attend and/or get the replay. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/mgallerdice)

On this podcast we'll be focusing on reclaiming our innate right to care for our own loved ones at death in natural, and often, environmentally friendly ways. We'll demystify the tasks related to after death care through hearing stories from people who have ventured into culturally unfamiliar territory and cared for their own deceased loved ones at home, chose a natural burial or both. In this introductory episode, host, Sarah Crews, will identify some of the terminology we'll be using in these conversations. A Path Home is a production of the National Home Funeral Alliance.Support the show (https://www.homefuneralalliance.org/donate.html)

In this episode of "Ask a Death Doula", my guest, the former president of The National Home Funeral Alliance Lee Webster, breaks down Home Wakes/Home Funerals in a way that every individual and End of Life Practitioner can understand!  My guest Lee Webster is a career writer, editor and researcher, and frequent speaker and published author on funeral reform, including end-of-life support, home funerals, and natural burials. She is the Director of New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy, former President of the National Home Funeral Alliance, and has served on the NHPCO End-of-Life Doula Council. She currently serves as a founding member on the Board of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and with the Conservation Burial Alliance and the Green Burial Council. Along with consulting for end of life, home funeral and green burial causes, her writing has appeared in various mainstream magazines, newspapers, and in funeral trade outlets. She is also a frequent speaker to local and national academic, health, and conservation organizations throughout the country.   This interview includes: What is a home wake? What is a home funeral? The benefits of the green burial movement. Is embalming required by law? How education is the key to positive change. The importance of empowering families and communities with holistic, sustainable and family-based tools, skills and information in the care of the dying and the dead. How home wakes have proven to help families to have a much better bereavement process after the death of their loved one. The secret to transforming our culture is by educating and once again bring back relationships with aging, dying and death. What an individual needs to know to have a home wake? What is the role of the End of Life Doula/Death Doula in assisting a family to have a home wake? What are the laws both state and federal regarding homes wakes?   Links mentioned in this episode:  NH Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy National Home Funeral Alliance Funeral Consumers Alliance National End-of-Life Doula Alliance   FREE DOULA TRAININGIf you're a family caregiver, community volunteer, or are interested in becoming a certified end of Life Doula Practitioner, CLICK HERE to join Suzanne for her FREE Introductory End-of-Life Doula Training! http://freetraining.doulagivers.com/   OR   Learn how to give the gift of Peace of Mind at the End of Life to yourself and your family members by signing up for Suzanne's Peace of Mind Planner course! CLICK HERE to learn about the five keys to achievingPeace of Mind at the End of Life.https://planner.doulagivers.com/about

This is Tanya Marsh and you’re listening to Death, et seq. My guest this week is Sarah Crews, the director of Heart Land Prairie Cemetery in Salina, Kansas, the first all natural burial ground in Kansas, and the President of the National Home Funeral Alliance. Sarah also has a background in hospice and music. Links: National Home Funeral Alliance Heart Land Prairie Cemetery

Lee Webster discusses her educational and advocacy efforts in the "neo-traditional" home funeral and green burial movements. Links to organizations and resources mentioned in this episode: Green Burial Council National Home Funeral Alliance New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy Changing Landscapes: Exploring the growth of ethical, compassionate, and environmentally sustainable green funeral practice Selected quotes: Home funerals are “family led and family directed.” “We don’t recognize death as an emergency.” “One of the main characteristics of a home funeral is that it’s okay for people to look dead. We’re taking the time to be present and nearby and to engage with what’s happening. It’s taking the time to be with them.” In green burial, “we do nothing to impede decomposition. That’s pretty basic. No concrete, no metal, no exotic woods, no embalming, no toxic chemicals of any kind. We are letting nature take its course at its own pace.” “Green burial is bringing back ritual to a society that has been losing it because we’ve been trying to avoid the heavy costs of funerals and going with direct cremation.” We want people to think about “what is truly authentic about the life of the person they’re honoring.” "Funeral reform is very much needed. There are certain practices within the industry itself that do need change in a very big way." “People are hungering for this information.” "One of the largest issues for me is simply access." "The sooner we can get grassroots activism going, the sooner this will all be a moot issue." "The Catholic Church is really leading the way in green burial because we're getting back to full body burial. They never wanted cremation." "Unitarian Universalists, from the very beginning, have been big leaders in funeral reform."

Many people are uncomfortable with talking about death, Cassandra Yonder is not one of them. You may or may not have heard that community death caring (sometimes refered to as death midwifery, death doulas, thana doulas, etc.) is making a comeback into our culture. I think my mom would have loved this had she known it was even an option. In this week's episode, Cassandra and I talk about what it means to take care of the dead as a community and how she is passing that knowledge on to other people. Cassandra is the co-owner of BEyond Yonder Virtual School of Community Deathcaring.  Cassandra is a prominent contributor to the alternative deathcare movement in Canada, which spans the humanities, social sciences, science, and medicine.  Her expertise and leadership in deathcare practice in Canada have been recognized nationally, and she frequently appears in the national and international media.  For example, she has been interviewed and referenced in Maclean’s, The Guardian, The National Post, CBC, The Coast, Media Co-op, The Chronicle-Herald, The Stranger, and The Huffington Post.  Cassandra has an academic background in Sociology, Gerontology, Architecture and Grief & Bereavement.  Her family of 6 are homesteading in the forested highlands of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with over 70 animals, where the realities of birth and death are ever present.  Cassandra is a leader in the movement to reclaim family and community centred care of the dying, dead and bereaved.  In addition to assisting with the home funeral and home burial of her friend and neighbour, Cassandra is a member of the Order of the Good Death, has represented Canada on the board of directors for the National Home Funeral Alliance, is currently the chair of Community Deathcare Canada, and has started the BEyond Yonder Virtual School for Community Deathcaring in Canada with her partner.  She also hosts the world's largest online community for alternative deathcare on her facebook group with more than 4000 members. Cassandra's spoken and written words help us to articulate the need for a cultural re-connection with death.  You can find her at her website: deathcaring.ca

In this wonderfully grim exploration, Amanda, Jacob, and (returning friend) Dani go beyond the pale... for a hallowing chat with a most morbid special guest, Angie! Trained as a Death Midwife and Certified in 2011 by Nora Cedarwind Young, Angie is one of the founders of the Death Midwife movement. She is also a Rite of Passage Officiant, Senior Minister at Earth Traditions Church, Emeritus Board Member of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, and Pagan Student Advisor at the University of Chicago. She is a member of the National Home Funeral Alliance and the National Chaplains Association. Angie is committed to educating individuals, small groups, families, and entire communities or church groups to proudly reclaim family directed choice at end of life. With many thanks to both her and our dear friend Wee Bee, it's with ghastly delight we present this edifying dance with the dead.   Treading along this mortal coil, there's talk about: End-of-life care and planning, funerary practices, body disposition, transitions, cultural views on death and dying, elder care, grief and mourning, rites of passage, ancestor work, prolonging life and death, closure, what Death Midwives do, comfort and intimacy, decomposition, and oodles more.   Sharing Space: - Mushroom Death Suit (TED Talk): https://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee - Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death, by Lisa Carlson and Joshua Slocum: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Rights-Reclaiming-American-Death/dp/0942679342 - The Death Midwife: https://deathmidwife.org/ - Earth Traditions: http://www.earthtraditions.org/ - Threshold Singers of the Chippewa Valley: https://thresholdchoir.org/chippewa-valley - Haides (Neokoroi): http://www.neokoroi.org/religion/gods/haides/   Links: Website: http://www.thepriestesses.com Email: thepriestesses@gmail.com Twitter: @ThePriestesses Facebook: The Priestesses Music: Rebecca E. Tripp (www.crystalechosound.com)

TODAY'S GUEST: Rev. Olivia Bareham, founder of Sacred Crossings is a certified Death Midwife, Home Funeral Guide and Celebrant. She holds bachelor's degrees in Education and Natural Theology and Sacred Healing and is an ordained Inter-faith Minister. Olivia's experience as an auxiliary nurse, hospice volunteer and her mother's end-of-life caregiver, inspired her to investigate more meaningful and personal alternatives to traditional funeral practices. “At the event of death and for a few days following, there is a window of opportunity for great healing to occur. When the funeral home took my mother's body away just hours after her death, I felt this window close. We were left feeling helpless, unsure and wishing that we had had a little more time.” In an effort to provide a way to keep this window open and facilitate the healing process, Olivia immersed herself in the study of death and dying culminating in certification as a Death Midwife and Home Funeral Guide. She subsequently created Sacred Crossings with the mission of empowering and guiding families to reclaim the ‘Lost art and healing ritual of a Home Funeral'. Over the next ten years the demand for information about conscious dying, after-death care and home funerals increased: “When I was called bedside to help an individual make their transition, they were often remorseful about unresolved relationships, or fearful of what was going to happen, or stressed about their suffering. It seemed that transitioning would be a gentler, less stressful process if people learned how to prepare ahead of time. Also, when a loved-one died, families were often completely unprepared. They were unaware of their options for after-death care and the complex funeral industry made them feel helpless, vulnerable and afraid. It became clear there was a huge need for death education so I began teaching classes and workshops on The Art of Dying, After-death Care and Home Funerals.” Olivia is a writer, producer and public speaker. She is an active member of the National Home Funeral Alliance,and past President of the board for The Los Angeles Hospice at Anam Cara in Topanga Canyon. Sacred Crossings is a Los Angeles-based company offering education, support and guidance for conscious dying and home funerals. Sacred Crossing Guides assist families with end-of-life planning; death midwifery; creating a vigil and funeral at home and cremation or burial arrangements. Their education institute offers workshops and classes and a certificate program in The Art of Death Midwifery. Students are both professional and non-professional end-of-life caregivers and those wishing to delve deeper into the dying process to further their spiritual growth. Graduates of the death midwifery program are eligible to serve as Sacred Crossing Guides. The Sacred Crossings Funeral Home is coming soon & will offer a full range of services including cremation, burial, funerals and memorials. Sacred Crossings is a non-denominational service without cultural or religious discrimination. While it is best to begin funeral planning in advance, we can help a family at any time. Connect With Today's guest: Rev. Olivia Bareham Website: www.SacredCrossings.com Olivia(at)sacredcrossings.com On Facebook IN THIS EPISODE: It may sound strange to you to think about having a death midwife, but it really makes sense when you think about it. We hire a midwife to come in at the birth of a child - the entrance into this life. Why wouldn't it be appropriate to hire a midwife for death, the departure from this life? My guest today IS a death midwife and is training others with the skills to fill this important role in helping those who are dying and their families deal with the fact of death in a more healthy and positive way. Death is one of those transitions in life that is so strange and uncomfortable that people don't like to talk about it. But that's only because we've been taught to be uncomfortable about it. In many cultures, there are family rituals centered around the death of a loved one that actually help with closure and healing over the 3 days following the death. A death midwife's role is to come into a family situation and help those struggling with the death process to learn, grow, and come to accept the inevitable fact of death for all of us. It's a healthy process of listening, asking questions, and learning as everyone learns how to say goodbye in a healthy way that benefits the one dying as well as those who survive them. What is YOUR biggest fear about dying? Is it the pain? In this conversation Olivia and I chat about how the pain is not such a fearful thing and why it's not the best thing for people to be over medicated to the point that they can't interact with their family or friends during the last days of their lives. It robs everyone of a very important part of the death transition that could make the experience more positive for everyone. If you are curious about end of life issues and the role that a death midwife might be able to play in your family or future, I encourage you to listen to this conversation. I learned a lot myself about the positive role a death midwife can play in an otherwise uncomfortable and difficult situation. I hope you find something in Olivia's stories and experiences that will bring you hope and help as you deal with death in your own life.   Outline Of This Great Episode [1:59] My welcome and introduction to this episode. [8:28] Who is Rev. Olivia Bareham? [12:00] What IS a death midwife and why did Olivia get into this kind of work? [15:00] Things that should take place over the 3 days following a death. [17:55] Why a slower transition with a death midwife is better for the family. [19:22] Why does American culture deny the dying process. [21:51] What happens after the 3 day period. [25:27] The importance of telling loved ones what you want done at your death. [27:20] The vital nature of establishing your own health care directive. [30:42] The benefits and good work of hospice care. [33:50] The importance of having conversations about death and dying. [36:50] My call to action and thanks to you - the listeners! [38:05] How should a person reach out to the death midwife if they wind up in a hospital? [41:35] Do religious people have an easier transition? [46:12] The training program for death midwifery that Olivia has created. [43:38] Questions and thoughts about drugs at the time near death. [53:00] How self administered lethal dose laws impact this process. [57:04] The 3 best things you can do to prepare for your death. Resources Mentioned On This Episode www.MyDirectives.com BOOK: The Art of Living and Dying (affiliate link) BOOK: Die Wise (affiliate link)   Check List of Documents to Include in your DEATH FILE Advanced Health Care Directive - signed & notarized. (See caringinfo.org to download directive for your state) Will Trust & Certificate of Trust Durable Power of Attorney for Finances Life Insurance Policy Bank Account Information Real Estate Documents & Deeds Funeral Pre-need docs & Funeral Insurance if any Debtor Information Copy of Drivers License / Social Security Card / Marriage & Divorce Certificate Passwords for phone, computer, email, Facebook & other social media sites Advanced Death Care Directive - Your plan for funeral & final disposition - (see deathcaredirective.com) Letters to loved ones - (These can be distributed to your loved ones upon death)

In 2007 I discovered home funerals and it took my breath away. It was shocking, but it was so beautiful a concept too. How do you do it? Why would you do it? It demands an exploration once you find out about them and deserves to be considered. There are some confusions about it, for instance, many people equate funeral with burial but they are not the same thing. There is the home funeral (honoring the dead) and there is the home burial (interment). Listen in as I ask Lee Webster, President of the National Home Funeral Alliance, every question that comes to mind about this practice. It is new but it is not. We have been doing it since time began until we began to ask funeral directors to take over (the last 100 + years). There is a growing movement of people wanting to take it back. National Home Funeral Alliance website    End of Life Care Certificate Program Learn.Create.Serve. Training and mentoring doulas, companions, guides and midwives since 2005