What happens if you step into someone else's time of intensity and heightened emotion before examining your own experiences? What effects might "hidden motivations" have on your care capacity? The truth? It's not actually possible to become "fully healed" or an "empty vessel." Arguably, it's not even helpful to hold onto these ideas as aspirations.… Continue reading Hidden Influences & Agenda Checks
For me, it’s a beautiful undertaking to study grief care and provide direct support to those facing loss. It’s been a different sort of challenge, though, to live grief while immersed in the field. But that’s what fate had in mind. Back in early February, I was finishing my manuscript and arranging the first print… Continue reading Living a Loss
There are countless reasons to strengthen community grief care. Here are five to embrace and enact today. #1. Grief is both Universal and Deeply Personal The community grief support I provide is rooted in this truth. There’s value in learning about loss and also in exploring our personal reactions to it.A grief care client expressed… Continue reading Beliefs Worth Backing
Do you ever find yourself surprised by surprise? Recently, while reading Belonging by Toko-pa Turner, I had an out-loud “huh” moment that caused me to shut the book for a long pause. In a passage about journeying through exile, Turner writes, “The initiated adult has learned to withstand uncertainty, has paid a debt to the… Continue reading The Eventual Ancestor
A written interview originally published by Mystic Mag How long have you been supporting people through grief and loss as an end-of-life doula? What first drew you to this path? I began my journey as a postpartum doula in 2009, and a few years later, expanded my path to become a childbirth educator and birth… Continue reading Holding Hands Through Life’s Thresholds
Francesca Lynn Arnoldy 