A ‘retired’ social worker, serial entrepreneur and leader of award winning corporate culture, Tracey is here to serve. A certified End of Life Doula, with studies in Thanatology, Gerontology, Group Therapy, The Art of Dying and The Grief Journey, Tracey is a thought leader in Death Awareness, Education, Advocacy and End of Life Planning.

My Mission

Much as a mid-wife guides a soul into this world, an end of life doula can stand as a steady guide for the final passage out of this world.  There is a growing and beautiful movement for death positive experiences based on the same model of care as a birth doula.

My experience began more than 27 years ago as a young medical social worker in a small town in Canada.

Sitting at the bedside with a young mother who was in her final weeks of this life.

Sitting with her I was feeling into how to create a legacy for her young children. This was my first experience with holding space in this way.  

There was no technology at that time to support, and the young Mom was near the end of her journey.  She was weak and as we talked awhile I sensed that she had more left to say to her family. We gathered ideas on how to help this process, and we began to write letters to her two children to be opened on years later on their 10th birthday – a few years into the future. She spoke her truth and I was the paper and the pen on her behalf.  

Envisioning her young children someday reading her words when they were old enough to understand was incredibly moving and cathartic.  And watching this beautiful woman’s focus and energy transform from what felt like ‘a helpless version of waiting’ to a ‘soul-filling sense of giving’ was a metamorphosis that is indelibly imprinted on my life.  

I could feel almost in slow motion the energy shift and the quality of her last days change. I watched the interactions with her husband and children change when they came to be by her side at the hospital.  Working with families for many years who were facing decisions in their last chapter together on this earth was a transforming and profound privilege. 
 
And somehow when it was my turn to prepare for goodbye with my own precious mother – many years later after a long second career outside of health care – it all seemed new and I felt initially unprepared and temporarily frozen by fear.  I began a new and deeply personal journey that was absolutely soul changing.  So many beautiful nudges about how to make the most of our time to say goodbye to this life together.  A gift that I believe most everyone could experience and create for themselves. And in her honor I studied and researched and eventually went back to my social work roots and became a Death Doula.  An End of Life Planner and Educator.  

Come with me as we Reimagine Goodbye together.