End of Life Doula Mentorship Course

May 2026 End-of-Life Doula Mentorship Course

This eight week immersive program will support you to deepen your competency of end-of-life care through case studies, group discussions, and embodiment practices.

REGISTRATION OPEN

Course overview

The intention of this offering is to alleviate the barrier of lack of experience in order to enable those seeking to be of service in end-of-life care to confidently step in and be of service.

This course was designed as an alternative to shadowing end-of-life care providers. It was created for those who are seeking direct experience in supporting the dying and their people. Shadowing is rarely feasible due to the deeply personal and intimate nature of the dying process. This lack of direct experience can often create a barrier to stepping into service, leading to unfamiliarity, fear, and a lack of confidence. To address this gap, we have designed an 8-week course as a substitute for shadowing clients, serving as a pathway to increased comfort with the role of companion. During this program, participants will engage with a series of case studies, each loosely based on real-world experiences of end-of-life doulas. You will be invited to bring your unique perspective to each scenario. Together, we will explore how to best support the dying and their people.

Course curriculum

Course runs from May 2 - June 27, 2026

1. Nice to meet you!
2. Zoom link for all gatherings
3. Recordings
4. Come on over and join the End of Life Companioning Community
5. Ask away - a place for questions
1. Welcome video
2. Course Details
3. Course Outline
4. Course Learning Intentions
5. How we will be growing together
6. The Land We Stand On - Practices for Embodied Living, Experiencing the wisdom of your body by Hilary McBride
7. Story object
8. Grab a journal and a box
9. Your Personal Ritual Practice: Intentionally engaging with this course
10. Reflection and journal prompts - Inhabiting the Body
11. The Withdrawal / Dissolution of the Elements
12. Soft Belly Meditation
13. How to make an accordion heart
1. Session 1: Introduction to the embodied role of End of Life Doula
2. Learning Intentions
3. The roots of practice for the role of End of Life Doula
4. End of Life Doula Timeline
5. Helping, Fixing, Serving by Rachel Remen
6. Companioning Model - Dr. Alan Wolfelt
7. An Emphasis on Heart Wisdom - Ilarion "Larry" Merculieff
8. A meditation to support boundaries
9. Personal rituals for protection
10. A self-care ritual offered by Felicity Warner
11. Clearing by Martha Postlethwaite
12. Resources and Tools
1. Session 2 - Earth Element
2. Learning Intentions
3. Earth Element Correspondences
4. Grounding Practices and Rituals
5. Earth Altars
6. Otto Scharmer's Four Levels of Listening: A Journey to Conversational Depth
7. The Family Dance
8. Self compassion - the one skill that will change the world
9. Fear Contemplation Meditation
10. Resources and Tools
1. Session 3 - Water Element
2. Learning Intentions
3. Water Element Correspondences
4. Self Ceremony and the Element of Water
5. Anticipatory Grief
6. Reactions to Bereavement
7. Dying is a state of ongoing loss . . .
8. Self Reflection: Call and Response
9. Living My Culture - Canadian Virtual Hospice
10. Your Doula Heart Mantra
11. The Ring Theory
12. Supporting the surfacing of Soul Wounds and the Role of End of Life Doula
13. Excerpt from The Nature of the Journey - Addressing Spiritual Distress in the Role of Companion
14. Handwashing Ritual for Companions
15. Personal Boundaries Exploration - Journal Prompts
16. Tears
17. The Power of Witnessing Soul Wounds - Case Study Bev
18. Koru's Death Care Pre Planning Guide - British Columbia
19. Right Here by Dane
20. Resources and Tools
1. Session 4 - Fire Element
2. Learning Intentions
3. Fire Element Correspondences
4. Sit Around the Fire - Jon Hopkins, Ram Dass, and East Forest
5. Estrangement Grief
6. Words on Self Compassion by Andrea Gibson
7. Life Review Questions
8. Ritual and the Element of Fire
9. Inviting young people into Ritual
10. Community Candle Lighting Ceremony
11. Nearing Death Awareness
12. What is Vigiling?
13. Cremation Prayer
14. Antidote for fear of not being good enough
15. MAiD Provision Candle Countdown Ritual
16. Resources and Tools
17. Halfway point survey
1. Session 5 - Air Element
2. Learning Intentions
3. Air Element Correspondences
4. Rituals and the Element of Air
5. Air Meditation - Danielle Elese
6. Signs of Active Dying
7. Rituals for the Moment of Death
8. A Ritual for Emerging Doulas
9. Privilege and Dying
10. Ambiguous Loss
11. Elements of Communication
12. Listening is Love
13. A series of conversations - Guidance on conversations from Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal
14. People's Law School - MAiD
15. The End-of-Life Doulas Role in Assisted Dying
16. Dying is not as hard as you think
17. In Conversation by Rosemerry Wathola Trommer
18. Resources and Tools
1. Session 6 - Ether element
2. Rituals and Ether
3. Vigiling with the Body After Death
4. Gabriel's Home Funeral
5. Blessing for Washing the Dead
6. Family Grief - Okun & Nowinski
7. Silence practice
8. How We Die
9. Write yourself a self-compassion filled note
10. Consecration - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
11. Silence - David Whyte, Consolations
12. Resources and Tools
1. Session 7 - Grief and the archetype of the Wounded Healer
2. The Five Gates of Grief - Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
3. Queer journeys at the end of life
4. Serving with Your Whole Self
5. Misconceptions about Grief - Alan D. Wolfelt
6. Copy of Reactions to Bereavement
7. The Poetry of Grief: Beyond Scientific Portrayal
8. Sarah Kerr's Grief Model
9. Your Medicine Cabinet
10. Feelings
11. Grief and Anger
12. Anger - David Whyte, Consolations
13. Mourning - The outward expression of grief
14. Personalized Grief Rituals
15. Lois Tonkin's Grief Model - We Grow Around Grief
16. The Wounded Healer
17. Secondary Losses
18. We The Bereaved
19. Grief lives in the body
20. How to listen - Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen
21. Class Grief Resource Share
22. The Rabbit Listened
23. An Exploration of a Lifetime of Loss
24. Chart of Personal Losses
25. For When We Greet Each Other - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
26. Self-Talk by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
27. Resources and Tools
1. Session 8: Building a community of practice and the embodied Doula
2. Follow Your Curiosity
3. Service
4. Death Competency - From Death Competency UK
5. Healing Connections - From Suffering to Well-being
6. The Practicalities of Dying at Home
7. Diversity in Dying: Death across Cultures
8. How Doulas Can Support Assisted Dying
9. Lifetimes
10. Are We Getting Self-Care Wrong - Shanna B. Tiayon
11. "No-self-care" and deep connection practices
12. Carrying Calmness - Dr. Sarah Kerr
13. Starting a Doula Business
14. Money
15. Edges and Headroom
16. Interview with Amy Wood, Vancouver End of Life Doula on Doing the Work
17. Copy of Doula Case Studies Presentation
18. Examples of Doulas Doing the Work
19. Grief Astronomer - Andrea Gibson
20. Resources and Tools
1. End of Life Doula Mentorship Course Survey
2. Give Birth Slowly

About this course

$625.00
156 lessons
Saturdays from 9am-12pm PST | May 2, 9, 16, 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27

What you'll experience

Increased confidence to step into supporting the dying and their people by exploring real world case studies; highlighting what we know about dying; identifying the physical, emotional, social, and spirituals sign posts, and accepting the mystery inherent in the journey.
A toolbox full tools acquired over a decade of experience in the field - intake templates, techniques for guiding clients with spiritual work, supporting the bereaved, and subtle body energy techniques to stay grounded and centred.
Less fear about death through guided meditation and contemplating your relationship to fear so that you can relate to fear and not from it in order to be more present for others on the end-of-life journey.
Increased intimacy with death and grief through exploring your personal myths and beliefs so that you are able to be more present and less likely to be activated when you are companioning the dying.
Create a supportive community of practice to offer encouragement as you step into the role.
You will be guided to identify your unique gifts and supported to share your unique offerings with your community.

Meet Your Guide

Tracy Chalmers

[email protected]

Tracy Chalmers is grateful and humbled to be living on Coast Salish land known as the North Shore of Vancouver, in British Columbia. Since 2017, she has served as an end-of life doula, co-founded the End-of-Life Doula Association of Canada, founded Endwell, co-founded The Grief Well, served as a hospice volunteer and mentor, trained as a Forest Therapy guide, facilitated various training and community workshops through Endwell, written her first book, The Nature of the Journey, and facilitated the End-of-Life Doula Care program at Douglas College. A friend to grief and death and servant to many, Tracy also considers herself a perpetual student. She is of Norwegian, Swedish, Scottish, and English ancestry, and values her roles as mother, daughter, wife, sister, friend, listener, and lover of the natural world and all of life. The work that Tracy does honours and is supported by countless ancestors.

Testimonials

“The course its self was beautiful- the content, community and the care woven through every -part of it. I came in grieving and searching. I’m leaving feeling supported and grounded. And ready to step into this profession whole heartedly.”