What does an end of life doula look like?
That might sound like a strange question, but it’s one we’re asked all the time. And the honest answer is: there’s no one face, one form, one path. There are at least a thousand.
Because doula-ing is not one-size-fits-all. It’s a calling expressed through different lives, different strengths, and different intentions. It’s both deeply personal and powerfully practical.
So, who becomes an end of life doula, and what do they do with it?
Some come to this work because they want to bring it into the system. Nurses, social workers, aged care staff, counsellors, palliative care workers… they don’t want to leave their role. They want to enrich it. To bring the heart, the holding, the humanity that doula training offers into the places people are already dying.
Others come because they’ve had a powerful personal experience with death. For some, it was difficult—filled with confusion, isolation, or trauma—and they never want another family to feel as unsupported as they did. For others, it was beautiful, meaningful, and deeply connecting, and they want more people to have the chance to experience that. Either way, the impact stays with them. And they want to make a difference.
Some want to start their own business. To offer end of life support in the community as an independent practitioner, creating a livelihood doing something they believe in.
Some want to volunteer. To give back. To accompany those who are dying because it feels like sacred work. For them, it’s about service, not salary.
Some come to educate. They want to run death cafés, speak at community events, raise awareness about dying and grief and planning ahead. They become passionate ambassadors for death literacy, out there planting seeds in the hearts of others.
Others bring it into their personal circles. They don’t plan to go into “business” at all. They simply want to know how to support their family, their friends, their faith community with more skill, more calm, more clarity.
Some doulas find their place after death. They support families through the early hours of grief. They wash and dress the body, hold vigils, liaise with funeral providers, and help navigate the necessary steps with gentleness and grace. For these doulas, after death care is where their heart beats loudest.
Some doulas go on to become celebrants. Some become carers. Some become teachers, authors, retreat hosts, support group facilitators, and doulas for the doula. Some even bring their doula ways into completely unrelated fields—because once you learn how to “hold space,” you never really stop doing it.
The point is: there’s no one way to be a doula. And that’s exactly the beauty of it.
When people ask us at Preparing the Way what our graduates go on to do, we smile. Because the answer is always: so many things.
What unites them isn’t the job title or business card. It’s the capacity to accompany others at the hardest, most honest times in life. It’s the willingness to show up with presence, with compassion, and without needing to fix.
Whether paid or volunteer, private practice or public system, teaching or tending or quietly caring—each doula brings their own shape to the work.
A thousand faces. One heart.
If you’ve ever wondered if there’s a place for you in this work, there is. Your face might be the next one we see.
Helen Callanan
Founder & Lead Educator
Helen is a practising end of life doula and the Founder, Managing Director, and Lead Educator of Preparing the Way. With nearly 40 years of experience in traditional Chinese medicine and Reiki and working with the aging, very ill, and dying, Helen brings profound insight into health and the ‘circle of life’.