End-of-life planning is the process of making and documenting decisions about your care and preparing for the end of your life. The goal is to ensure you have the best quality of life possible and to help your family know your wishes so they feel empowered instead of overwhelmed. End-of-life planning can involve:

Discussing/Documenting your wishes
Talk with loved ones about your preferences and values, such as where you want to die, what type of medical care you want, and if you want life-extending treatments. 

Preparing documents
Selecting a power of attorney, completing advanced care directives, knowing when to involve an attorney to create a living will or other legal protections to avoid probate post death and ensure your agent’s authority continues if you become incapacitated. Some documents can also communicate your smaller wishes at the end of life, which will be used to inform your team of the appropriate ‘comfort care’ measures to take.

Making decisions
Consider things like organ donation, funeral arrangements, and urgent or emergency care. For example, you can set up a DNR order, which is a document written by your doctor that tells emergency health care workers not to perform CPR if you can’t breathe or your heart stops. 

Getting your affairs in order
You can put important papers in one place and tell someone you trust where to find them. You can also share copies of these documents with family or your medical team to ensure your preferences are communicated clearly while you have the chance to advocate for yourself.

Although Channeling Expansion does not complete the paperwork on behalf of clients, I will act as an accountability partner and your informant for things that you have questions about. If I don’t know the answer, I will find the person who does! It will feel amazing to have all of your affairs in order, and I want to help you get there.

Death awareness is a soul-expanding topic that will usher in a gorgeous depth of curiosity and wonder. Death curiosity is far from morbid, it weaves together relationships, legacy, values and spirituality. I am passionate about normalizing the art of humans contemplating their death and using its transformative power to live more fully and value-aligned in the present. During these events, I provide death preparation resources (each person will leave with invaluable & practical worksheets to make death preparation easy and manageable). In addition to providing resources, I teach therapy techniques that allow the concept of death and grief to not be so overwhelming. At the end, people often wonder how discussing death made them feel clarity and relief to the point of laughter and smiling! To fully sink into the experience, it often includes a grounding sound bath and a gentle death meditation. If you are interested in this workshop for your group, business or family, this event can be tailored to your specific needs (highly recommended for social workers, first responders, therapy groups, or anyone that wants to find peace, reverence, or acceptance for this part of our existence). Come curious, leave more death informed and value aligned!

I will help you research all of your funeral and final disposition options. Together we will find the most appropriate and affordable option available. If necessary I can also act as an advocate to make sure that funeral homes are providing fair services such as reading through an itemized list in a funeral package to make sure you are in agreement with everything you’re paying for.

Sitting vigil is a ceremony that involves being present with someone who is dying in their final days or hours of life. It can take place in a variety of settings, such as a home, hospital, care home, or hospice. The goal of sitting vigil is to show love and support to the dying person, and to help them feel less alone. It can also provide comfort and meaning to the dying person’s loved ones. Upon request, I can perform a sound bath or a reiki session to the dying person. Both of these modalities are intended to induce relaxation and peace and can be performed without any touch so that their rest is not disturbed. 

Grief likes to flow through symbolic action, such as taking a trip to spread their ashes somewhere special or donating something to their charity of choice. Other times, something special can take place such as a living funeral (a celebration of someone’s life that resembles a funeral but takes place before they’re gone, so they can actually attend!). Although my specialty is not event planning, I can oversee a special end of life project that would honor a person’s legacy. I have lots of ideas that can help people feel a sense of direction during a time where they feel powerless. It is a creative, contemplative, and special process that reflects a dying person’s very special core values. 

Your loved one has died, now what? Well, lots of phone calls, redirecting mail, sifting through their email to ensure subscriptions are turned off, working with life insurance representatives, living through the shock of grief, catching your breath after the funeral…shall I go on? The list seems endless, but I can come consistently and ensure that you’re getting post-death affairs wrapped up in the right order and on a sustainable timetable. Yes, I’ll sift through stacks of mail with you while you’re on the phone, on hold, again. Yes, you can stay in your PJ’s while we check off the list. We got this.

Oftentimes, animal loss and deaths are overlooked in our society. In reality, pets can be a person’s most cherished companion. I have pets myself and will be devastated when it is their time to die. When we adopt pets, we agree to love them for the duration of their lives, this includes caring for them as they age and die. For these reasons, I offer non-medical pet end of life services such as facilitating rituals, memorial services, organizing a way for your pet to die comfortably at home OR assisting with shrouding (shrouding is a comforting way to enfold a pet in a special fabric to acknowledge the loss. It can also be part of a ritual that shows reverence and care for the deceased). Your pet grief is valid. You can reach out for help so you don’t have to worry about the details, which frees up time and mental space for you to spend every spare moment with your beloved pet.

As a former hospice chaplain, I can draw from my previous training to provide spiritual support to patients and their families during end-of-life care. Similar to my role as a therapist, I will offer comfort, compassion, and prayer services (or other preferred rituals such as meditation, singing, or chanting). As a trained listener, I can provide a safe space for individuals to share their spiritual fears, joys, and hopes as they deal with the transition of life. One doesn’t have to be part of a particular religion or be religious to ask for spiritual support. Additionally, I’ll help to connect you to your clergy or other supports so that your spiritual wishes are met (i.e. collaborating with your religious leader to come and perform certain ordinances or rituals).

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It was discovered by Mikao Usui in March 1922. Reiki is administered by “laying on hands” and techniques such as this have been practiced for thousands of years. We all have a life-force energy while we’re alive, it is a non-physical energy that animates all living things. Sometimes our life energy becomes low or restricted. Reiki is a high frequency energy that breaks up low energy and induces a parasympathetic nervous system state. This technique focuses on energy that doesn’t not need touch or any other invasive measure to work, which means that Reiki can be administered at a distance (this is referred to as distance reiki). This healing modality is a ‘no harm’ modality that has little to no side effects and is safe to receive in conjunction with other medically delicate circumstances.