About Amy
I am Amy — the wife of a mechanical engineer with an MBA, the mom of two hilarious and busy teenage boys (and a dog and a bird, also both male), a sister, an aunt (to all nephews!), and a friend.
In my work with the larger world, I am a certified death doula and medium.
I am here to help guide you in these ways so that you may know your own light and power — your own path forward through the door of death.
Read about Amy (that's her at right!) and her death doula peers thanks to front-page coverage in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Access online, or download a pdf.
Certified Death Doula + Medium
The "certified death doula" role means something different for every person that claims it and for every person that benefits from it, so I won’t belabor the definition here other than to state what it means for me and our work together.
I am here to help guide and support you through the end of life, whether you are dying or a loved one is dying. Like birth, each death is wholly individual. So too, then, is my work with you.
This work tends to take shape in these general ways:
Practical
We can work together to make sure you have all of your “business affairs” in order, including end-of-life directives, expressed and understood intentions for everything from funeral (or not) wishes to remains management, and general to-do list items that help ease and lift stress and worry. I can help you know what opportunities, choices, and rights you have no matter where you are in your journey. I am especially good at helping clients integrate and manage hospice care, whether at home or in-patient.
Emotional
Originally, we navigated dying and death together, at home, guided by each others’ wise counsel as beacons along the path. Death was part of life. We knew how to do it, and we helped each other do it. We talked with and listened to each other during the transition, and wept and laughed and prayed together then too, comforting one another in our arms and in our hearts. In my role, I summon a remembering of this wisdom, creating and holding space for whatever it is you want or need to explore during this most sacred stretch.
Spiritual
Because we are spiritual beings having a human experience, tending to the call of our most deeply held desires is the most important work that we can do — especially at the end of life as we prepare to go Home. I am often called to sit with and listen to the dying and their loved ones, and I pray with them and for them throughout their journey. I am a medium, too, able to communicate messages for those who can no longer communicate for themselves (due to disease and coma, for instance) and for those who have already transitioned to the unseen. As a medium, I also offer private and small-group sessions that you can read more about here.
How does all of this womanifest?
Again, each death is different, so the answer to this question is sort of a riddle. Our work can look like one-on-one appointments, family meetings, ER visits, vigil sitting, text chains, emails, and/or phone calls. Honestly, some of the most meaningful work I’ve done takes place with the family of the dying around a kitchen table or on a living room sofa. In addition, I teach small-group classes that help dispel fear around death and help us reconnect with its inherent beauty and power. I also use my blog and Instagram account to write and post about topics related to dying, death, and the afterlife.
Know that no matter where you find yourself along the river of life, you too can rise and heal. We can do this together.
With great love,
Amy
Education and Certifications
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B.A. Communication, Saint Louis University
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M.A. Communication, Saint Louis University
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Reiki Master, Usui Tradition
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Certified Death Doula with additional training in home funerals and green burials
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Member, National End-of-Life Doula Alliance
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NEDA Proficient*
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Evidential Medium
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Teacher, Writer, Speaker
*The NEDA proficiency badge signifies that an end-of-life-doula has met the alliance's high standards for communications and interpersonal skills, professionalism, organizational and management skills, technical skills, values and ethics.
Patient Rights and Privacy
I adhere to and advocate for the National End of Life Doula Alliance's Patient Bill of Rights, which are specific to Quality Care, Safety, Privacy and Confidentiality, and Information.
I am an intensely private person, so I inherently respect your privacy and the sensitive nature of the work we do together. I never share publicly any details about you or your journey. In that same light, I don’t share or otherwise misuse your email address or contact information for any reason. Download your Bill of Rights by clicking this link.
Learn from past clients
The deal doula role can be a challenging one to wrap your head around if you haven't had exposure to it yet. I am always happy to discuss what my work might look like for you.
To help get better acquainted with the services I provide and my personality in general, I recommend that you explore my blog/newsletter (free on Substack) and my Testimonials page. If you would like to speak with past clients for additional insight, I can share their contact information with you.
One client's account in particular, Erin's Words, serves as a beautiful summary of how a death doula can inform and enrich the dying and death experience for optimal comfort and peace.
My Why
The back-to-back passings of my father and grandmother, both of whom I was blessed to tend to in their final days on Earth, catapulted me into the work of helping others navigate dying and death.
As infinitely beautiful and healing as their passings were, I saw the holes. I saw grossly broken parts of our healthcare and funeral industries, our culture’s utter neglect of this phase of life, our individual (false!) belief structures about dying and death that are so self-defeating. I saw how much fear we assume, create, and carry about dying, death, and life! I saw fear, suffering, worry, and heartbreak that we do not need to bear. Not at all.
Based on what I experienced, I knew that death could be better — and that we could be better individuals, community members, and global citizens if we reclaimed our inherent, God-given rights and choices in dying and death — and if we just created and held the time and space to experience it once again.
Dying and death have been a lifelong fascination of mine, really. I had even formally studied it through several different lenses in college and grad school. But as I served my loved ones as they transitioned, a big, giant, glowing door of light blew open and beckoned irresistibly. I was called to go through it. A calling is an invitation that you cannot resist, even if you try. But I didn’t bother resisting. Why would I? I knew where I was wanted and needed. So I walked through that door. Actually, I ran through it, full-speed, heart in hand — and now my mission is to get you to see and know and be one with that light as well.
Thank you Dad. Thank you Mama Dia. My work is dedicated to you and all of my ancestors who have gone before me in love and light.
