Honoring Life’s Final Passage, Level 3 Annual Training
Our Level 3 training offers a certificate in End of Life Doula, Death Midwifery, Home Funeral Guidance, and Educator.
NEW! Now including: Psychedelics at End of Life
4 day IN PERSON intensive training in Sebastopol, CA
Thursday-Sunday, October 22-25, 2026
9:30 – 6:00 each day
Reclaiming the Wisdom Traditions, Art of Death Midwifery and Home Funeral Guidance
Our Level 3 course offers more in-depth information surrounding End of Life Doula practice, MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying), VSED (Voluntary Stopping Eating & Drinking), Psychedelics at End of Life, Celebrant Practice, business start-up, legislation in the home funeral movement, and a large segment on Grief.
Along with further instruction by Final Passages director Jerrigrace Lyons, there will be nine other guest instructors to share their skills and wisdom.
Level 3 includes a certificate of completion for our death midwifery and home funeral guidance program.
WHAT WE COVER IN LEVEL 3
Our Level 3 course offers more in-depth information surrounding home funerals and the national movement.
Along with further instruction by Final Passages director Jerrigrace Lyons, there will be several guest instructors to share their skills and wisdom on subjects such as:
- Home funeral consultation role-play
- Psychedelics at End of Life
- Grief & Family dynamics
- After death body care review and homework assignment to practice
- A variety of ceremonial styles and rituals
- Death meditation practice
- Dealing with autopsy and pacemakers
- Current political issues
- When NOT to offer a home funeral
- Shroud wrapping and shroud-only green burials
- Still birth and fetal home funerals
- Natural methods of disposition (green burial, aquamation (water cremation), and Natural Organic Reduction)
- End of Life Option Act, MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying), and VSED (Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking)
- Resources for presenting to your community
- Exploration and guidance for starting a business or home funeral support group in your area
We are planning lively panel discussions of various topics by our staff and guest presenters. We are very excited about having many new graduates at the conclusion!!
Regular price for Level 3 IN PERSON is $1395
Special 2026 Price for Level 3 In Person: $1195 for 4 days!
Early Bird Discount of $145 automatically applied at checkout through
Early Bird Price: $1050
11:59 PM Pacific Time on Thurs, Oct 1, 2026.
Partial Work/Trade Scholarship discounts available. Call us at 707-824-0268.
Registration for Level 3 closes October 8 to allow time for required pre-course films and assignments.
Did you know? PayPal offers a 0% payment plan. Look for that option when you check out.
Refund Policy
Click here to see our REFUND POLICY.
WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING ABOUT LEVEL 3
I think the course curriculum and materials were excellent and very well-developed. You included different types of content/modes in learning including music, video, ritual, poetry, humor, breakouts, Q&A, discussions, meaningful homework practice/assignments, facilitator sharing, etc. The curriculum and schedule flowed very well. The pacing and content felt just right to me. The curriculum felt well-rounded and came through different sensory and pathways for learning. You addressed head, heart, and spirit. We covered a lot of material (on Zoom even!) and I felt nourished and surprisingly energized at the end of each day. Juliana
I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. All of the teachers are amazing women with loving hearts, who offered skillful instruction. I am impressed and inspired. — Kelli
Truly, the power of having gathered all these like-minded people, seeking to change the way we do death, is breathtaking. Besides that factor, the videos of the ‘how to’ are really helpful. Seeing the language that’s used to speak to a family and the ability to see the techniques that are used when working with a body were a wonderful tool to help me get a better understanding of what happens in ‘real time’. — Cassidy
You were able to create such connection and intimacy on the Zoom format in a seamless way. We were truly held in a cradle of care, love and support. I felt very extra grateful to be able to do this deep dive into Conscious Death and Dying in the comfort and privacy of my own Home. It also made it very affordable. I learned and grew more than I ever dreamed. I am still digesting the rich feast, yet feel I will gracefully find my way to how I can serve others in this area of life and death. — Ranjita
Your Instructor: Jerrigrace Lyons, Founder of Final Passages
Jerrigrace is a minister, death midwife, Reiki Master, and a renowned pioneer of the home funeral movement since 1994. She is the Founder and Director of Final Passages. She created a 3-tiered certificate training program, guided nearly 500 family-directed home funerals to date, and pioneered a new field of “home funeral guidance.” Jerrigrace is featured in the acclaimed PBS documentaryA Family Undertaking,The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Jerrigrace consults with individuals who wish to plan for their end of life at anytime in their life stream. She specializes in home funeral planning and is a certified MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying) Doula, supporting those who choose this option and those who are present to witness and hold space.
Jerrigrace is also a member of the SoCoElda (Sonoma County End of Life Doula Alliance).
Assistant Instructor: Michelle Vesser
Michelle Vesser has a deep connection with the wild and spiritual world.After 30-years as a farmer/gardener, she created Everything Sacred: Tending Your Inner and Outer Landscape which offers her passions as an end-of-life doula, home funeral guide, spiritual and grief counselor, and organic garden coach.
Michelle brings practical, emotional and spiritual experience to individuals and families in the dying process, at the time of death, during after death care, and through their grieving process. She is a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and offers the end-of-life practices of Phowa and Zhitro. Michelle co-foundered the Sonoma County End-of-Life Doula Alliance www.socoelda.com
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Linda Suhr
Linda Suhr taught K-12 and ESL in California, Japan and Syria for 25 amazing years. After caring for her partner on his journey with Alzheimer’s Disease and peaceful death at home, Linda found her calling as an end-of-life doula. Linda completed trainings with Going with Grace, Final Passages, Inspired Endings and numerous workshops. She is a founding member of Sonoma County End of Life Doula Alliance and leads workshops on Advance Health Care Directives and End-of-Life Planning. Linda supports clients with pre-planning and those who are actively dying.
Leslie Shore, PhD
Leslie “Yatie” Shore is a doula and mythologist who has served the dying directly for 25 years and was called to the bedside as a child. As a retired journalist, Leslie also covered sudden death repeatedly over years. Leslie earned a doctorate in mythology and psychology in 2013, studying cross-cultural responses to death and loss. As a member of a Jewish community in the Pacific Northwest, she leads a Chevra Kadisha (holy society) and teaches Tahara, the water blessing, funerary ritual that is performed upon death. In her work as a Doula and Midwife, Leslie pairs ancient ritual elements with modern bereavement practices to create a revolving memorial practice.
Manena Harper
Manena Harper, BA and End-of-Life Nanny, created Heart Centered Memorials (HCM) after attending the Final Passages Workshops. She has a diverse business background including managing a non-profit free clinic for seniors in Santa Monica, California that was featured on 60 minutes and 20/20. She left a position as VP of a national company to start HCM. She has been involved with end of life care since 1974 she has facilitated many home funerals and memorial services. She was her husband’s end-of-life care-giver, and directed and facilitated his home funeral. She has been part of the Final Passages family for almost 20 years.
Hannah Whitmore, MD
Hannah Whitmore. MD
Psychedelics at End of Life
Constance Miles
Transitioning from birth work to end of life work was a natural segue, after midwifing her son by marriage through his final journey and removing her mom from life support. Both events inspired original poems which grew into her self-published collection, Lamentations: Grief and Remembrance. As a registered nurse, Constance has worked in a multitude of settings.
Constance Miles, RN, MA (Counseling Psychology), Birth Midwife (37 years), Certified Death Midwife and End of Life Doula, Poetess and CelebrantConstance birthed her four daughters at home and midwifed her eldest and youngest during the home births of her six granddaughters.
She offers deep listening, a compassionate presence and a quirky sense of humor. She is on the Final Passages Core Council and Sonoma County End of Life Doula Alliance (SoCoELDA) and has guided many home funerals. She cherishes being a Nana, gardener, poet and dancer.
Mark Hill, Our Tech Guru
Mark is a wisdom keeper with many life skills. He is a minister who facilitated psychic- meditation groups for a decade in LA and an Intenders group in Sebastopol for 10 years. Mark is an Herbalist, Reiki Master, Acupressure Practitioner and a Certified Diet Counselor.
He provides core support to Final Passages and Home and Family Funerals by assisting in guidance and hands-on family support and he is Final Passages’ Audio/Visual Technician.
Final Passages could not function without this man behind the scenes.