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Imagine…
- Facing death with far fewer fears
- A funeral ceremony being held in a home or a private, intimate setting; allowing for a longer and more personal good-bye
- Bodies being respectfully cared for by family and friends, not by strangers
- Family and friends decorating or building a casket or urn as a healing act of closure
- Environmentally conscious final disposition
- Children learning that death is a natural part of the lifecycle by participating in a home funeral
- Knowing more affordable options compared to conventional methods
Started in 1995, Final Passages was the nation’s first non-profit, educational institute and resource center dedicated to conscious dying, and a holistic, green, compassionate and dignified alternative to conventional funeral and after-death practices. We are also the first nationwide organization to create a death midwifery and home funeral guidance training program.
Celebrating more than 25 Years in Death Doula/Midwifery and Home Funeral Guidance!
Our work serves the needs of community members who come from a variety of cultural, economic, and religious perspectives. Final Passages is an active participant in the National Home Funeral Alliance.
Day of the Dead bags
Shop for these sturdy, flat bottomed should bags and Cosmetic bags in a variety of designs.
In the News
While we were in Hawaii to teach at the Death Doula training, I did an interview with Amorah or Gutsy Women Radio. Click here or on the image to watch on Facebook. (No login required.)
Upcoming Trainings and Events
Level 1 ONLINE training
Conscious Dying, End-of-Life Doula and Death Midwifery Care
ONLINE Friday – Sunday, January 26-28 2023
Embracing the End of Life:
A Monthly Online Series on Dying, Death & Grief
Free Community Education Series
3rd Thursday of each month at 6:00 PM Pacific Time
Grief: Exploring a Roadmap
Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 6:00 PM Pacific Time
Our Dec 28 presentation, facilitated by the Final Passages team, will be a gentle compassionate holding space to name the various ways we experience and process our grief.
There will be time in smaller break out rooms to share personal tools we have found that work to help us live onward day to day with our grief as well as in and around the holidays.
This offering is not meant as a grief support group; rather it is a place to learn and name and begin our healing journey. Individual Grief support resources can be requested.
Online Conversations on Dying, Death and Grief
Free community education event presented by Final Passages and hosted by Danielle Pacific
Stay tuned for next date on a Wednesday at 7 PM Pacific Time
Let’s Talk About Death: Film & Discussion Evening
Postponed until further notice.
“Final Passages’ course work is life-changing. The education is transforming my perspectives on death and the healing that can occur at the end of life. I look forward to sharing, connecting and assisting with my family, friends and community about home funerals.”
— Victoria Joy
Final Passages’ trainings go far far beyond home funerals. I step into more of who truly am every time I come. There’s nowhere and nothing in the world like them. They’re consistently the most transformative trainings and workshops I’ve ever attended.
— Andrea, Santa Cruz
In reflection of the my path with your direction in May 2019, I must let you know how much that experience meant to me and continues to mean to me.
The opportunity to say good bye to my Beloved husband Tom by having his presence close to me for three days as his spirit left his body, continues to be such a healing for me.
Thank-you, so much for nurturing the peace and deep-hearted presence of love which still lives within me today.
I would love to be a part of your dedicated work; if and when there is a path for me to do so.
Please know, how thankful I am for your inspirational work.
Peace, Love and deep Gratitude,
Mathilda Cassidy, Home Funeral Guidance Client
We weren’t ready for how the veil was parted in our lives, but we appreciate all we learned at your course a few years ago. We relied heavily on what we’d just learned to a) share new options (and our wishes) with our adult children, b) advise them to let either us or someone they trusted know their wishes, and c) share with others, encouraging similar things.
Tami Monkman, Level 1 and 2 student
We had no idea that in just a very short while, we would host a tender wake at home for our 24-year old daughter, Anlya Grace.
Her tragic death in August 2018 shocked us all – family, childhood friends, and extended community in several cities. Mourners repeated over and over how much it meant to be able to bring their art/poem/quote/peace to enfold and honor Anlya.
Many didn’t know such a thing as her community-decorated cremation casket and home-directed funeral was possible. All were agreed: Anlya’s at-home, earth friendly wake was exactly how she would have wanted her community to gather. An artist, poet, and equal rights activist, she was known for sheltering and feeding temporarily homeless friends, celebrating our beautiful planet, laughing heartily, dancing and galvanizing others to reach beyond indolence, cruelty, and discrimination.
I can hear her in my mind, anxiously watching while her country chooses its path, ferociously urging while she paces.
Thank you, Jerrigrace, for your instruction, hands-on demonstrations, and resource materials provided at the workshop.
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