Nov 16, 2022
Linde Carter, MA, RN, NC-BC, CEOLD, CGD
Becoming a death doula is a profound, compassionate, and heart-centered journey that involves providing support and comfort to individuals and their families during the end-of-life process. To embark on this path, you don’t need a medical background. You need genuine passion and training on the different services that death doulas offer. Equipped with these essential tools, a death doula can bring immeasurable value to those facing mortality, easing their fears and uncertainties with compassionate care. For families seeking an ideal death doula who aligns with their goals, asking the right questions will enable you to identify one with a good track record of professionalism, ethical conduct, and respect for diverse cultural and religious beliefs. In this episode with Linde Carter, we discuss what a death doula is, what they do and the pathway to becoming one. We also explore how families can find a death doula who aligns with their goals, values, and beliefs to ensure a harmonious and supportive experience during life's most challenging moments.
Linde Carter is a death doula and grief coach. Linde has been a registered nurse for almost 25 years and has spent more than half of that time as a hospice nurse and palliative care nurse at the bedside in patients’ homes and long-term care facilities, in quality management and nursing management. She is also a board-certified nurse coach specializing in loss, grief, transition, and end-of-life coaching. As a certified end-of-life and grief doula, Linde has her own private coaching and doula practice, Simplicity Transition. Like so many others, Linde has encountered and struggled with loss in her life from early on, and she learned that grief is not just about loss through death; it’s simply about loss of any kind.
Linde is passionate about supporting anyone experiencing any kind of loss or grief, anyone facing chronic, life-threatening illness and end of life, and anyone who may feel ready to move forward and carry their grief in a new way that is comfortable and healthy for them. Through grief and end-of-life coaching, Linde creates a space for others to know it’s okay to be vulnerable, scared, and even hopeless and to not always have the extra strength to keep moving forward and to hold that space for openness, honesty, support, and hope. She also currently has an active Facebook Group, Growing Through Grief, and is happy to allow anyone to join.
Tune in!
Key Highlights from the Episode;
[00:30] Episode intro and a quick bio of the guest; Linde Carter
[04:24] Linde's personal and nursing background and how it weaved her way into death doula
[07:59] What a Death Cafe is and why Linde Death Positive Talks are different
[12:44] What inspired Linde to go above and beyond working as a hospice nurse
[15:01] The benefit that the hospice Linde works with provides that makes them stand out
[18:46] The nitty gritty of what a death doula does for people and the cost involved led
[23:01] How much time Linde spend working as a death doula, and her goals
[23:45] How Linde works with families in grief and the time she spends with them
[25:38] Requirements and qualifications and how long it took Linde to become a death doula
[27:42] Things to consider when looking for a good death doula training company
[30:36] The best ways for families to find the best death doulas or end-of-life doulas
[31:41] Book and courses that Linde recommends for end-of-life doula or care
[33:24] The kind of questions to ask death doulas to find out if they align with your goals
[38:34] Linde's final words about death doula or end-of-life doula
[39:21] Why grief is so undermanaged and Linde's experience after losing her father
[42:46] Diversifying your career and how Linde balances the different wheels
[45:23] How to reach out to Linde and get help, support, or learn more about their offers
[46:58] Wrap-up and end of the show
● We prepare for everything else in our life, but we don’t plan for our death and don’t want to think and talk about it. [07:04]
● When you are looking for a hospice organization, you may be pushed to it because it is last minute, but don’t just take the words of whoever is referring you to hospice, do your own research to find out the best; if you sign on with a hospice organization and you are not happy with it, ditch them and go somewhere else, there are good one out there, and you deserve the care and benefits [14:27]
● You don’t have to have a medical background to be a death doula; you just need to have a heart for the work; there are different courses available, and you need to get training on the different services you can offer. [26:06]
● Our culture doesn’t do very well in grief, we teach everybody about gaining things in life, which is great, but we don’t teach people how to lose, respond to loss and support others. [39:55]
Re-Imagining The End of Life by Janet Booth: https://www.amazon.com/Re-Imagining-End-Life-Self-Development-Reflective/dp/1798285398
On Grief and Grieving by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: https://www.amazon.com/Grief-Grieving-Finding-Meaning-Through/dp/1476775559/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1NXL6SHCDRT1S
It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine: https://www.amazon.com/Its-That-Youre-Not-Understand/dp/1622039076.
How To Carry What Cannot Be Fixed by Megan Devine: https://www.amazon.com/How-Carry-What-Cant-Fixed/dp/1683643704
International Doula Life Movement: https://www.internationaldoulalifemovement.com/
Integrative Nurse Coach Academy: https://inursecoach.com/
The Nurse Coach Collective: https://thenursecoaches.com/
The National End Of Life Doula Alliance: https://www.nedalliance.org/
The Conscious Dying Institute: https://www.consciousdyinginstitute.com/
Marie's Contact:
http://buymeacoffee.com/hospice
Marie@hospiceencounters.com
Leave a Voicemail: 206-705-3080