“I very much appreciate the learnings from this course. It will not only support me in my work with End-of-Life Care, but the learnings support me in being a kinder and more compassionate human. We could all benefit from this.”
–Jennifer F., 2022 Program Graduate
Who is this course for?
We are proudly welcoming:
- Aspiring doulas
- End-of-life care practitioners
- Family caregivers
- Hospice and palliative care volunteers
- Professionals who work in healthcare, mental health, social work, and integrative therapies
- Spiritual care providers
- All who heed the call to embrace dying as part of the natural life cycle with more compassion and knowledge
At UVM, we respect and honor the varied roles within care teams and communities. It takes a village!
This is a very popular course and has limited seats. We highly recommend registering when registration is open and available.
About Our Approach
This course offers a deep journey into end-of-life care and working with the dying and their loved ones and caregivers. As part of your training, you will be exploring your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences about and around death and dying.
These explorations are designed to help you grow in your understanding of the end-of-life cycle. During your studies we strongly encourage you to engage in a manner that honors your needs and to practice self-care, which we have learned is a vital skill for a doula.
We invite you to come and learn more about death and dying. While here, you will be encouraged to remain open to the process of learning in community, where you will be learning from others, and from yourself, as you cultivate your doula heart.
We hope you join us.
Meaningful, Compassionate Work at End-of-Life
Are you passionate about helping others feel empowered and well-supported during their times of need? Do you have an interest in exploring the emerging field of End-of-Life (EOL) Care? Would you like to enhance your established role in EOL care with additional skills and approaches? Would you like to further develop your innate capacity to care for others, release death anxieties, and increase your confidence around entering into intense experiences?
UVM’s fully-online 8-week End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate will help prepare you to meet the growing demand for end-of-life support as people live longer and the course of the average dying process continues to become increasingly gradual and anticipated.
End-of-Life Doulas complement the care provided by family members and friends and medical, palliative, and hospice professionals within the settings of hospitals, senior care facilities, and homes. EOL Doulas support clients with individualized, compassionate care in several ways, including emotional, spiritual, informational, and physical support, which greatly helps to lower stress levels, aid in comfort, and promote personalized, even positive, dying passages for clients and their loved ones.
The popularity of death doulas has grown especially as the Coronavirus pandemic engulfed the globe. In 2021, more than 600 people enrolled in UVM’s popular End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate program. Since the inception of the program in 2017, nearly 3,000 people have received their certificates from UVM.
Graduates of UVM’s End-of-Life Doula certificate programs have a variety of opportunities through the Osher Center for Integrative Health, including:
- Opportunity to create a listing in the Integrative Practitioner Network
- Attend or Present at a Laura Mann Integrative Healthcare Lecture Series
- Invitation to join the academic consortium for integrative medicine and health
- Access to the Osher Collaborative which includes education, research, and networking among an international group of eleven academic Centers funded by The Bernard Osher Foundation to study, teach, and practice integrative healthcare.
UVM End-of-Life Doula instructor and program graduate Diane Button recently wrote an article titled I’m a Death Doula. These are 10 Lessons I’ve Learned About Living from the Dying. Time Magazine highlighted the important work of death doulas, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times featured UVM doula graduate Maryanne O’Hara and her experience not only as an End-of-Life Doula but also as an author of a memoir honoring the life of her daughter.
Learn more about the work that UVM doula certificate graduates are doing around the world through our articles, videos, graduate testimonials, and information sessions.
