Every life is a story, and every story ends.
The stories we tell about death shape how we live — and how we die. Most of us inherit stories that make death something to fear and avoid. My work is helping people write better ones.
I’m a sociologist, author, and end-of-life doula. I help people facing mortality — their own or someone they love — find language, meaning, and agency in the experience.
I bring compassion, experience, and genuine human presence, backed by academic and practical training, so you can feel comfortable working with me on the stories that can be hardest to face.
For individuals & families
Death Doula Services
Most of us know we should have the hard conversations — with our doctors, our families, ourselves. Most of us don’t. I work with people who are ready to stop putting it off: individuals facing a terminal diagnosis, families navigating a loved one’s final chapter, and anyone who wants to approach their own mortality with more intention and less fear.
Learn more →For organizations & communities
Speaking & Workshops
I speak at the intersection of sociology and mortality — where research meets the bedside, and where professional practice meets the deeper questions practitioners rarely have time to ask. My talks and workshops are for hospice and senior living staff, social workers, funeral directors, and nurses — and for the residents, patients, and community members they serve.
Booking information coming soonFor individuals in transition
Coaching & Consulting
Transitions are uncomfortable by design — the old story no longer works and the new one hasn’t taken shape yet. I work with people who are between chapters: careers, identities, relationships, roles. My approach draws on sociology, narrative, and 25 years of helping people think more clearly about their own lives.
Coming soonElizabeth Anne Wood, PhD, is a sociologist, certified death doula, and transitions coach based in the New York metropolitan area and southeastern Connecticut. She spent 25 years as a professor of sociology at Nassau Community College, where she taught courses on gender, relationships, and the sociology of everyday life. She is the author of Bound, a memoir about accompanying her mother through a final chapter that defied every conventional expectation, and a certified death doula trained by Alua Arthur and the Going with Grace program. She works with individuals and families navigating end-of-life decisions, anticipatory grief, and major life transitions, and speaks to hospice organizations, senior living communities, and professional associations on death literacy, the sociology of dying, and organizational culture in end-of-life care settings.
Elizabeth Anne Wood, Ph.D. 