Honoring Life’s Final Passage, Level 3 Annual Training: Becoming a Death Midwife/Doula, Home Funeral Guide and Educator
Reclaiming the Wisdom Traditions and Art of Death Midwifery and Home Funeral Guidance
Our Level 3 training offers a certificate in Death Midwifery and Home Funeral Guidance.
4 days ONLINE spread over 2 weekends.
October 7-8, 2023 and November 11-12, 2023
9:30 – 5:30 each day
and an FAQ session
Saturday, October 21, 2023 from 10 AM -1 PM Pacific Time
Early Bird Price: $890
Save $60 by paying in full by the Early Bird Date.
Full Price of course: $950 after Early Bird date
Early Bird Price automatically applied at checkout through Early Bird Date.
Scholarship discounts available. Call us at 707-824-0268.
Our training will be 2 weekends about 1 month apart plus a half-day FAQ session
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 guest instructors to share their skills and wisdom on subjects such as:
- Home funeral consultation role-play
- 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 our online format for Level 3 and having many new graduates at the conclusion!!
Step 1: 3 WAYS TO REGISTER
By Check:
Download the registration form (coming soon). Complete, and mail with a check Payable to Final Passages to: Final Passages, PO Box 1721, Sebastopol, CA 95473
OR PAY ONLINE:
Choose Deposit or payment in full. Then click “Add to Cart” at the top of this page. There is also an option to pay the balance due when you are ready.
PAY WITH CREDIT CARD OVER THE PHONE:
Call us at (707) 824-0268 to register by phone.
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
Jerrigrace, founder of Final Passages, is a Minister, death midwife, educator, home funeral guide and Reiki Master. She founded the educational non-profit organization, Final Passages in 1995 to inform people about little known funeral options, natural death care rights and practicalities, green burial and the benefits of bringing funerals back into the home and family care. She has guided hundreds of home funerals over the past 25 years.
Jerrigrace is featured in the acclaimed PBS documentary, A Family Undertaking (available on Netflix as DVD).
Tentative List of
GUEST PRESENTERS AND INSTRUCTORS
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. Manena assisted her husband with Tendano, a unique form of body work self-care for 15 years.
As an End-of-Life Nanny for 10 years, she has facilitated a number of home funerals and memorial services. She was her husband’s end-of-life care-giver, and directed and facilitated his home funeral. Our Level 3 would not be the same without her colorful and loving personality
Constance Miles
Constance Miles is a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and, newly, great-grandmother. She has been a home birth midwife for 36 years and a death midwife and end of life doula for 19 years. Transitioning from birth work to end of life care seemed so natural, feeling it as both an honor and a privilege to assist those most vulnerable as a guardian of the gates. She offers deep listening, a compassionate presence, and a quirky sense of humor.
Constance is a member of the Final Passages Core Council She is also a passionate gardener, a steward of the land and an avid lover of poetry. She says,” My book, Lamentations, is a collection of my poems about grief and remembrance. The earlier poems were inspired by removing my mom from life support and midwifing my stepson through his final journey. Composing poems has helped me to drop into the heart of the mystery of death.” Constance has also co-produced two guided journey CDs, one for birthing and one for self-discovery.
Michelle Vesser
Michelle provides guidance and a loving presence as support for you and your family as death approaches. Michelle’s groundedness and understanding brings calm to this tender time of transition. She can offer you emotional and spiritual support with the end life and help you and your family through the process.
Mark Hill
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 scene.
Melissa Weaver
Melissa Weaver, B.Sc. has over 30 years of experience as a practicing holistic healer, herbalist,
body-worker, health coach educator specializing in environmental impacts on health. Her background includes 5 Element Chinese Medicine, Taoist Healing Techniques, Homeopathy, Flower Essences, Nutritional Counseling, Yoga, Chi dGung, Laughter Yoga Leadership, Somatic Movement and she is CEO of Enhanced Health Systems. www.enhancedhealthsystems.com
Melissa is an ordained minister and directed the Home Funeral and Memorial for her 21 year old son Jack Kahlil Weaver in November of 2007. She is passionate about sharing the importance of creative ritual and facilitating communication with loves ones on the other side. She loves to tell magical, colorful stories about communications with her son, and is writing a book called Visits from Jack which tells the story of how her son helped heal her broken heart after he transitioned into Spirit.
Lori Goldwin
Lori Goldwyn has worked in the EOL field since becoming a Hospice & Palliative Care volunteer in 2013. In 2016, she took INELDA’s EOL doula training & since then, she has developed her doula practice & continues to learn from other EOL professionals. Since 2018, she has specialized in assisting people who choose the CA End of Life Option Act, while learning from & collaborating with Dr. Lonny Shavelson & Thalia DeWolf, RN, founders of the American Clinicians Academy for Medical Aid in Dying (ACAMAID).
Lori is a founding member of the Bay Area End of Life Doula Alliance. She has a Masters of Science degree in Speech & Language Pathology & lives here in the Bay Area in lovely Point Richmond.
Sue Gimpel
Rev. Sue Gimpel, Masters of Divinity, is an Interfaith Minister certified in Anthroposophical Counseling Psychology and as a Home Funeral Guide. Sue has a private practice in Sebastopol, California as a Spiritual Life Coach. As a devotee of the Divine Feminine, Sue helps individuals identify their soul’s longings and integrate their body, soul and spirit to live authentically in relationship with themselves and the world. Rev. Sue has been a Grief Support Counselor and Group Facilitator with Memorial Hospice for seven years. She teaches a class in Home Funerals and Green Burials for the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, Ca and serves on the Core Council for Final Passages. Rev. Sue has raised three children, with her husband Ralph of 35 years, in their home in Sebastopol, CA.Laura Musselman
Laura Musselman lives and works in Central California. She is an end-of-life-doula, a death educator, and volunteers with a local hospice as well as Compassion & Choices. A former professor of both philosophy and writing, she is also at work on a book about her own experiences with grief and loss.
LENGTH AND HOURS OF WORKSHOP
4 days on 2 weekends, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 – 5:30 Pacific Plus a half-day FAQ session
AFTER LEVEL 3
We have a new 2-day Graduate Practicum Training, offered once per year.
For local graduates, ask about Internship options. Jerrigrace is usually available by telephone to assist any graduates with a home funeral.
