As a death doula with a PhD in sociology and author of Bound: A Daughter, a Domme, and an End-of-Life Story, a memoir that tells the story of navigating the end of my mother’s life, I help people reclaim death as a meaningful part of life rather than something to fear or avoid.
In the United States, many of us have lost the basic knowledge of how to support each other through dying and grief. There are lots of reasons for this. It’s not your fault. I combine academic understanding of how death functions in society with deep personal experience and professional training to help you navigate life’s most profound transitions with dignity, agency, and peace.
My approach is unique because:
- I understand complicated family dynamics—not every death story is a Hallmark movie. That’s okay. It can still be the best death possible.
- I honor both reason and spirituality without imposing any particular belief system. My goal is to help you make sense of things in the way that’s right for you.
- I support you as you craft the narrative of your life and death, giving you authorship and control over your story.
- I bring sociological insight into why death feels so frightening in our culture—and how to move beyond that fear.
If there’s something you need that you don’t see here, reach out to me and we can discuss it. If I can’t offer it, I might know someone who can!
Family Navigation & Communication
For complicated relationships and difficult dynamics
There’s a common saying that people die the way they live. I specialize in helping families navigate end-of-life decisions when relationships are strained, communication is difficult, or old conflicts resurface during crisis. Death doesn’t mean the end of difficult relationships, either. I can support you during complicated grieving when the person is gone but the pain remains.
- Facilitate difficult conversations about care preferences and values
- Help decode what your loved one really needs when they can’t express it clearly
- Support you in being present with someone you have a complicated relationship with or in maintaining your distance where that’s more important
- Guide families through decision-making when everyone disagrees
- Support you in clarifying and maintaining boundaries before, during, and after a death
Ideal for: Adult children managing aging parents, families with a history of conflict, situations where past trauma complicates current caregiving
Story & Legacy Crafting
Your life is a story—let’s write the ending together
This isn’t just memory preservation. This is helping you understand your life as a meaningful narrative and consciously crafting how that story completes itself.
- Explore the themes and values that have shaped your life
- Create narratives that help you embrace rather than just accept your circumstances
- Document stories that reveal who you truly are, not just what you’ve accomplished
- Frame your legacy in ways that bring peace to you and meaning to those who remain
Ideal for: People seeking meaning in their mortality, those wanting to heal relationships through storytelling, anyone feeling like their life “doesn’t matter”
Death Anxiety Transformation
From fear and avoidance to acceptance to empowerment
Death anxiety isn’t just fear of dying—it’s fear of meaninglessness, loss of control, and the unknown. By listening deeply to your concerns, and introducing meditative practices combined with philosophical, sociological, and psychological insights, I help transform your relationship with mortality.
- Understand why our culture makes death so terrifying (and how to opt out of that fear)
- Explore what death means to you personally, separate from cultural programming
- Develop practices that help you live more fully because you’ve made peace with dying
- Create advance care plans that reflect your actual values, not just medical preferences
Ideal for: People with persistent death anxiety, those avoiding end-of-life planning due to fear, anyone who wants to live more authentically by accepting mortality
Anticipatory Grief Support
When you’re grieving someone who’s still alive
Watching someone you love decline is its own form of grief that our culture rarely acknowledges. I provide specialized support for this unique and challenging experience.
- Navigate the complex emotions of anticipatory grief
- Find ways to connect with your person as they change
- Manage caregiver burnout and complicated feelings
- Prepare emotionally for the death that’s coming while staying present for the life that remains
Ideal for: Caregivers, family members watching cognitive decline, anyone facing terminal diagnoses in their inner circle
Vigil Companionship & Death Education
Demystifying the dying process with compassionate presence
Death has become medicalized and made to seem off-limits to those who are not professionals. I help families understand what’s happening and provide calm, knowledgeable presence during active dying.
- Educate about the natural dying process so it’s less frightening
- Provide peaceful companionship during vigil periods
- Help families recognize signs and stages of dying
- Support decision-making about comfort measures and saying goodbye
Ideal for: Families with someone in hospice care, people who want to die at home, anyone feeling unprepared for what dying actually looks like
Grief and Bereavement Support
Grief doesn’t fit neatly into life, but it’s an essential part of living and loving
Grief isn’t a problem to solve—it’s evidence of your capacity for love, relationship, and life. I support people whose grief is complicated, disenfranchised, or simply doesn’t follow society’s expectations.
- Honor your unique grief timeline and process
- Address secondary losses that compound primary grief
- Navigate grief when your relationship with the deceased was complicated
- Find ways to carry love forward when the person is gone
Ideal for: People grieving complicated relationships, those experiencing disenfranchised grief, anyone whose grief doesn’t fit cultural expectations
Why Work With Me?
Academic Credibility + Personal Experience My PhD in sociology gives me unique insight into how death functions in our culture, while my personal experience (documented in my book Bound) means I understand the messy reality of family dynamics during end-of-life.
Specialized Training
- Trained by Alua Arthur and Going with Grace End-of-Life Services
- University of Vermont End-of-Life Doula Certificate
- NEDA-proficient (National End of Life Doula Alliance)
- Hundreds of volunteer hours with inpatient hospice and palliative care teams
Real-World Results
- Supported dozens of families through the dying process with dignity and peace
- Helped a lifelong death-phobic friend face cancer diagnosis with equanimity
- Guided families to recognize when someone was actually dying (not just having another crisis)
- Created space for complicated grief and difficult family relationships
Your life is your story. Every chapter, including the last, should reflect your unique existance.
In a society that often denies the ultimate reality of death, it’s easy to forget that death is the only outcome of a well-lived life. By openly confronting and accepting the fact that we are all going to die, we can claim some authorship over how our lives and our stories unfold.
About my training: It’s important to know that there is no state licensure or standardized training for doulas. I was trained by Alua Arthur and the incredible team at Going with Grace End-of-Life Services. I then completed the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula certificate program. I am NEDA-proficient, which means that I’ve passed the proficiency exam of the National End of Life Douala Alliance.
Important Note: Death doulas are not licensed medical, psychological, legal or funeral professionals. Our services complement but do not replace medical care, therapy, legal advice or funeral direction. We provide holistic, emotional, social, and practical support as you navigate life’s most profound transitions.
Elizabeth Anne Wood, Ph.D. 