Our Death Doula and Deathcare Services

Death Doula Services

This package is highly customizable to your needs. No two death doula packages are ever alike. Let’s collaborate and make the perfect package for you!

Death Doula services (for humans) include sitting vigil, respite care, educating the family on what to expect, formulating rituals to mark the transition states of dying, beautifying the environment and making it more conducive to a peaceful death, supporting the dying person physically, mentally, and spiritually, advocating for rights, relaying important information to hospice, funeral homes, friends and family….

In short, death doulas support the dying person (and their family and friends) through the journey of death. The list of what we can do is so vast that it simply cannot be distilled into one or two points. A death supported by a death doula is markedly different than an unsupported death. We are experts on death and dying. Let us apply our knowledge and connections to your benefit.

Every person’s transition is wholly unique. We will support you and your family on this path.

Please note: Death Doulas never administer any medication. We are completely non-medical support.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Pet Death Doula Services

Our pets are family. Standard modern funerary rituals (if you can even call them that) do not adequately represent how special and important our pets are to us. As a death doula, and funeral celebrant and ritualist for pets, Distant Shores Deathcare is beyond honored to help create the perfect service for your deceased pet. This package, dear friends, is how you lovingly support your pet as they transition.

All pets of every kind can be celebrated in a meaningful and fully customizable way.

Pet Death Doula services are at the vanguard of culture. Once you have experienced a pet death with the assistance of a pet death doula, though, you’ll wonder why we haven’t always been supporting our pets in this way.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Document Preparation

The purpose of these legal documents (Health Care Proxy and Advanced Directive, notably; can also include a POLST form) is to allow you to express your preferences concerning medical treatment in an event where you cannot communicate, including at the end of your life.

In addition to being invaluable to your physician and care team, it is a gift to your family because they will not have to guess what you would (or would not) want during a very stressful time.

This package includes everything from education, to facilitating discussions with family members, to making sure they are legally complete.

Having this paperwork correctly squared away is the single most important thing you could do to help ensure your death follows your preferences. Its importance cannot be overstated enough.

Digital Proxy and Pet Guardian papers are also part of this package, if applicable.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Ethical Wills

Ethical Wills are a way to ensure your hard-won wisdom does not disappear when you die. An Ethical Will bequeaths your knowledge and insights to your descendants ; it is a gift of love that your family is guaranteed to cherish. Distant Shores Deathcare is honored to help you craft this precious keepsake.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Memorial and Legacy Work

Distant Shores Deathcare will help you create a memorial or legacy work that is meaningful to you. Your imagination is the limit here - perhaps it is writing a book about your life, making a professional photo album of pictures, planting trees, creating a scholarship (to name a few ideas); there is no idea too small or too big! This package will enable your idea to come to fruition.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Living Wakes

A Living Wake is just as much a gift for the dying person as it is for the friends and family that will be left behind.

This is a chance to gather everyone before a precipitous decline, so that dying person can hear everyone can say the beautiful sentiments that would otherwise be said at their own funeral.

It is a time of laughter and tears. It is cleansing and healing. Living Wakes orientate everyone to the death that will most assuredly come. This is not an easy path to take, but it is incredibly rewarding for those brave enough to face their own mortality. Distant Shores Deathcare is always honored to help plan for, and facilitate, this profound event.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Green Burial Planning

Green Burials are a very eco-friendly funerary method but there are considerations and eco-standards that must be met. With our education and assistance you can rest assured that your green burial will be beautiful, peaceful, and not harmful to the Earth.

This package includes all aspects of education and planning except visiting potential green burial resting sites (this can be added to the package, just ask!).

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Home Funerals

You do not need to conduct a funeral at a funeral home. It is legal to have all funerary rituals done in the comfort of home.

This type of funeral is experiencing resurging interest in America - after all, it is what used to be the norm!

Please note: this package in no way equates Distant Shores Deathcare to the role of a funeral director. Distant Shores Deathcare is merely an educator and consultant. The beauty of a home funeral is that YOU are in charge, and YOU are supported, in the ways YOU deem necessary and important.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Funeral Celebrant and Ritualist

As a funeral celebrant and ritualist, Distant Shores Deathcare puts a lot of attention and detail into making your funeral a sacred and unique event. Serving all religious faiths, no religious creeds, and “spiritual but not religious” beliefs (and everything in between).

While it is preferable to plan and design a funeral in advance, short-notice funerals can usually be accommodated.

This package can also include eulogy and/or obituary writing, editing, and/or proofreading.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Cremation or Aquamation Services

This package includes everything for a cremation or aquamation.

This includes education, finding which cremation or aquamation business best suits your needs, conducting funerary rites and rituals at the crematorium or aquamation center, choosing a meaningful - even beautiful! - cremains vessel (this includes more than just traditional urns), presenting the cremains to the family, planning a scattering ceremony…if it deals with cremation or aquamation, it is included in this package.

Traveling to a specific site to scatter ashes is not included in this package, but can be added. Just ask!

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

Burial At Sea Services

This package focuses on Burials at Sea - be they of the intact body, cremains, or reef dedication ceremonies.

Burials at Sea are a viable option for anyone who wishes to be connected to the ocean even in death. It takes a little bit of planning, but that’s what Distant Shores Deathcare does best!

Package includes education on all of the options, arranging the logistics, discovering which business best serves your needs, ensuring all regulations are met, and filling out the proper forms.

This package does not include travel, but this can be added. If we are present for the burial at sea, Distant Shores Deathcare can orchestrate a special committal ceremony. If we are present, we can also fill out the proper forms on your behalf.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.

One-on-One Death Exploration for Future Deathcare Workers

This package is great for anyone who is curious about becoming a death doula (for humans or pets). If the Deathcare world has been calling to you, perhaps it is time to dive deeper into it.

This is highly customizable to suit your needs.

The range of intensity can be from “occasional sounding board” to “full on mentorship”. Every person’s journey into Deathcare is unique. This package will be tailored to meet YOU wherever you are, from true novice to seasoned professional. This can absolutely be done virtually in addition to in-person.

Please contact us for more information by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below.