Gentle questions, honest answers.

Thoughtfully creating your unique plan and design for end of life can begin anytime — often well before there’s a known timeline to consider. It’s possible, and quite freeing, to begin this process even decades early while creating legacy projects and a foundation of meaningful family conversations. The memories created along the way are precious and priceless to pass to generations to come. The process can also begin in the final months and weeks when the transition out of this world is imminent. The deep work is customized to each unique situation, and a good exploratory discussion is often the best step and easy to schedule.

A death doula is a trusted guide to help you and your family navigate the end of life — whether imminent, well into the future, or past. Much like a midwife helps to guide a soul into the world, a death doula or end of life planner can stand as a steady guide and advocate for the final chapter as one prepares to leave the earth.

By contrast, planning for an upcoming birth is expected, celebrated, researched, analyzed — envisioning can take place over many years before conception. Do you want to be parents? When, how many children, what type of childbirth? Who do you want to be with you? What might you name this beautiful child? All the things that create beauty and blessing out of the miracle of birth.

It’s harder in our society to think of death in the same way. We tend to medicalize death and we are taught to fear it. Our own early experiences of death form our thoughts, and the meanings we give these experiences create our death mythology. Changing the dialogue, bringing death out of the darkness and planning for a beautiful end of life is an exercise which can not only change that eventuality — but change every day between now and when it happens. Because shifting from scared to sacred is everything.

End of life doulas are known around the world by different terms: end of life consultants, death coaches, transition guides, soul midwives, death doulas, thanadoulas, end of life guides, to name a few.

Personally, the goal is to co-create a cadence and foundation to walk this road together.

• We’ll explore your ‘letting go’ stories and distil what you’ve learned about saying goodbye in other parts of your life.
• We’ll explore and create legacy projects for you and your loved ones that create a safe foundation for sacred conversations.
• We’ll shift the dialogue from scared — to sacred.

Ask yourself: do I feel a connection or a calling to this type of support as I contemplate my own goodbye, or as I’m preparing for the death of a loved one? If you’d like to speak confidentially about how you’re feeling and the ways we may work to walk the path together — we’ll just chat and explore it. There is no charge for the first consult to see if there’s a fit.

Tracey studied Social Work, with post-graduate studies in Gerontology, Thanatology, Group Work, Pathways of Grief and End of Life Doula Certification. Her favorite career chapter involved palliative care work at a small hospital in Canada. Tracey assisted families and loved ones planning for long-term care as Director of Placement Coordination and Acting Director of Home Care.

Recently Tracey has formally trained at the Centre for Sacred Deathcare in Victoria BC with the mentorship of Dr. Sarah Kerr, at Douglas College in British Columbia as an End of Life Doula, and interned and trained with the incomparable Alua Arthur of Going with Grace in California.

Tracey is certified as an End of Life Doula with the International End of Life Doula Association, and is a Certified Grief Educator with David Kessler’s Grief.com, where she moderates online grief support groups.

Tracey completed a third certification with thought leader Suzanne O’Brien RN in 2020 and is a member of the Open Center in NY — attending the Art of Dying Institute and ongoing courses in End of Life and Death Education. Tracey sits on the Board at the local hospice and on the Advisory Committee for the hospital. She is also a Licensed Mediator and a Reiki Practitioner.

I am honored to have served clients on four continents. Love leads me to sacred connections, and I’m so glad you’re exploring this today. Reimagine Goodbye is an end of life planning, education, guide and advocate program situated in Canada — travelling to you via Zoom or airplane, as called.

A helpful reference: familydeathdoula.com/faq. Or simply reach out — we’re happy to connect and answer any questions.