Death Doula/Midwifery, Green Burial, Home Funeral Guidance
Learn how to help family or friends exercise their legal right to create uniquely designed end-of-life ceremony, how to support natural death care of a body and other home funeral arrangements such as paperwork, transportation and other logistics. Discover the many benefits of home funerals and why people choose the ancient ways of our ancestors. Explore green burial and other forms of releasing the body after death that are environmentally friendly. Discuss caring for ourselves while practicing this deep work with others.
IN PERSON in Sebastopol, CA
Friday – Sunday, 2025 dates to be announced
in Sebastopol, CA
Friday Noon to 5:30pm
Saturday and Sunday at 9:30-5:30 pm
Lodging and meals NOT included. Snacks, tea and water provided. Bring your own lunch.
Early Bird Price automatically applied at checkout through the Friday, 2 weeks before class start date.
After Level 1, continue your training as a Death Doula/ Midwife in this course.
In Level 2 we explore:
- Care and honoring of a body during a home funeral
- Legalities and logistics for family-directed home funerals
- Facts and films about home funerals and green burial
- Ecological, economical, social, spiritual benefits of home funerals and green burial
- Guest speaker on a personal home family funeral
- Consulting with families to prepare for death
- Forms for families and agencies in your community
- What to have in your home funeral midwifery kit
- Use of therapeutic essential oils for anointing
- Self-Care for death doulas, midwives and guides
COST: $675
Partial scholarship discounts are available. Contact us to discuss ways we can make it possible for you to attend. 707-824-0268
Early Bird savings of $50 if paid in full by Early Bird date
To Register:
Online: Scroll back to the top of the page. Choose Deposit or Pay In Full. Then “Add to Cart”.
By Check: Write us a note with your name, address, email and phone #, and say that you are registering for Level 2 in person 2025. Mail it with a check payable to Final Passages to: Final Passages, PO Box 1721, Sebastopol, CA 95473
Refund Policy
Click here to see our REFUND POLICY.
Register for all 3 Levels here to save $600.
Instructor: Jerrigrace Lyons, Founder of Final Passages
Jerrigrace Lyons is a Death Midwife, End of Life Doula, Death Educator, a ULC Minister, Reiki Master, Author, Celebrant and a renowned pioneer of the home funeral movement. 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 documentary A 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 any time in their life stream. She specializes in home funeral planning and is a Medical Aid in Dying Doula, supporting those who choose this option and those who are present to witness and hold space. She is a compassionate listener and loves to support those in the threshold. She uses conscious dying rituals for releasing attachments.
Jerrigrace heads up Final Passages Core Council and is also a member of SoCoElda (Sonoma County End of Life Alliance.
ASSISTANT INSTRUCTORS
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. 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. She offers deep listening, a compassionate presence and a quirky sense of humor. She is on the Final Passages Core Council and has guided many home funerals She cherishes being a Nana, gardener, poet and dancer.
She is on the Final Passages Core Council, a member of the Sonoma County End of Life Doula Alliance (SOCOELDA) and has assisted with many home funerals.
Guest Presenter on a personal family-directed home funeral – to be announced
One of our students made this movie of Level 1 and 2 training.
AFTER YOU COMPLETE LEVEL 1 AND 2:
Level 3 includes a certificate of completion for our death midwifery and home funeral guidance program.
For local graduates, ask about Internship options. Jerrigrace is usually available by telephone to assist any graduates with a home funeral.
It was an honor to receive your sharing and teaching us about your work, your calling to it, and of yourself. For myself, I think most of all I appreciate your realness and being just plain comfortable with not only this work, but your place in it all. Thank you for that. The sense of ease you and Mark model is perhaps the best lesson of them all. With gratitude to you both — Sheila
