Workshops & Presentations

Cultivating the Doula Heart

Doulas step into the most intense, vulnerable thresholds of life to hold a hand, wipe a tear, and honor all that is meaningful. Come deepen your understanding of doula essentials of care. Learn useful, practical approaches and techniques that will enable you to more confidently support people through birth, grief, loss, and death.

In this 4-6 hour workshop, we will cover:

  • Tenets of Doula Support
  • Components of Compassion
  • Liminal Space
  • Being “Enough”
  • Personalizing with Plans
  • Tools of the Trade
  • The “Ins” of Holding Space

Additional Testimonials:

“Will refer friends, family, and coworkers to attend”
“Excellent – well thought out and presented”
“It was super effective (& affective)”
“I found everything useful and inspiring- great to know there are many cross references in your book”
“This was impressive, inspirational, and rewarding”
“Good balance of lecture, video clips, and small group activities”
“Thank you for lighting the spark and showing us how to open our hearts”

Working Through Wishes

Just as doulas assist pregnant clients with creating birth wishes, an end-of-life doula can support people as they consider their preferences for living fully and dying prepared. We’ll cover strategies of holding space for others as they work through their wishes (and anxieties) as well as spend time on introspective contemplation.

In this 2-hour workshop, we will cover:

  • Heart Centering
  • “Special Place” Visualization
  • Compassion in Action
  • Equanimity and Stability
  • Contemplative Planning for the End of Life

Details:

These workshops are geared toward open hearts and curious minds. No end-of-life, birth, or doula experience necessary. Welcoming medical professionals, doulas, caregivers, mental health clinicians, social workers, spiritual care providers, therapists, volunteers, etc. The doula heart can be infused into all work, interactions, and relationships.

Doula Heart and Working Through Wishes workshops can be combined for a full-day or full weekend event (virtual and/or in-person).

StoryListening Grief Support

Based on research by the Vermont Conversation Lab at the University of Vermont, this workshop provides an introduction to supportive care techniques to facilitate healthy grieving through a novel storylistening approach. Together, we will cover methods of self-preparation, creating and maintaining an invitational space, starting and ending storylistening sessions, and navigating complex emotions and situations, such as intense disclosures as well as our own conditioning, triggers, and shadow sides. Different from—yet complementary to—some clinical approaches, storylistening grief support does not include medical advising or cognitive restructuring, nor does it involve solutions, arguments, agreements, or false assurances.

During this interactive workshop, attendees will practice (1) adopting a stance of engaged neutrality, non-agenda, and acceptance, (2) validating through active, attentive listening, (3) respecting cultures, beliefs, and perspectives, (4) cultivating a non-anxious presence, (5) allowing and welcoming silence, (6) normalizing universal suffering, (7) and remaining calm and non-directive, yet also resourceful—beneficial practices for personal and professional uses alike!

In this 4-6 hour workshop, we will cover:

  • StoryListening Research Project: 
  • Practice & Integration
  • StoryListening Tenets
  • Cultural Humility
  • Secondary Traumatic Stress
  • Self-Sustenance: Internal Resources
  • Mutually-Generative Support

Attendees will:

  • Develop a foundational knowledge of storylistening grief support
  • Practice sensitive, affirming approaches to care while maintaining internal wellness

This comprehensive offering is geared toward care providers (professional, volunteer, family) who support others through anticipatory grief and bereavement. Let me know if you’d like to bring this highly interactive workshop to your community/org to increase confidence levels and fend off burn-out!

Self-Sustenance: Your Inner Resources

As a clinician or family caregiver, you attend to the endless needs of others. This responsibility can become weighty and consuming, especially when circumstances are challenging in particular cases. How can you provide care while maintaining your own wellbeing? Let’s alleviate some of the heaviness we sometimes carry through a nourishing healing practice that introduces actionable approaches and encourages a growth mindset. This 1.5-2-hour interactive session will help restore your reserves as we spend time reflecting, writing, and sharing in community.

Interested in hosting a workshop? Contact Francesca!