“Like birth, we want to bring death back where it belongs; in the hands and hearts of loved ones, in the home and community, in sacred space. We want to bring back touch, care, love, connection and to uphold the importance of death as a holy threshold and transition. We want to change the narrative around death, no more euphemisms, no more dirty words, no more taboos. We honour grief; our own, each others and that of the ancestors and the world.” Founding statement from 2017

Our End of Life Doula Preparation course is radical, deep and very much what is needed in our world at this time. We gather in circles, in community, and we learn through the sharing of stories, experience and wisdom. Our facilitators are just that, holders of space and we are all learning from the teacher that is Death. The course is 12 – 18 months in length and comprises of a 4 day face to face retreat and then a 12 month online inquiry with your cohort of fellow pilgrims on this journey. 

Sacred Circle doula preparation occupies a space between 2 worlds; the mainstream world as it is where death is primarily seen as a medical event and a different paradigm. We are calling into being a world where death and grief are woven through, and welcomed in, our communities. Where death and grief consciousness is commonplace and we return, together, to right relationship with land, place and space; a deep remembering of the ancient ways for our modern times. 

We prepare doulas to bridge between the mainstream, medicalised world of the death industry infusing every interaction with presence and care; while simultaneously strengthening the community connections and threads of story that will carry us forwards as our systems and institutions of care struggle and fail to meet our dying, dead and bereaved well. Some of our practices include sharing circles, wholesome ritual, keening and lamenting, grief ceremony, home care of a dead body, social justice and care of the bereaved following sudden and violent deaths. 

Doulas cannot work in isolation; nor can we attend to another when we have unresolved feelings around our own mortality; so this preparation course is as much about yourself and your relationship with death and then being in community as it is anything else. 

The new redesigned course is between 12 to 18 months long depending on how soon you sign up before the face to face aspect of the course. 

Please see our Pricing Policy for more information about how we came to our price, financial accessibility and the bursary fund which is available to doulas from communities traditionally under-represented in this work.

The new Course Content looks like this:

1. Upon registration you are immediately welcomed into our community and can join our weekly Zoom calls and facebook group
2. You are part of the online community forum hosted in our password protected part of our website
3. You will straight away be given access to the Journey with Death course and workbook which you can start
4. You will then come on a face to face residential retreat (5 nights / 4 days)
5. The face to face experience will be led by a lead facilitator with between 2 and 4 co-facilitators
6. On the retreat you will cover all the aspects of the course listed below
7. You will be provided with Course Companion notebook containing all teachings and spaces for you to write
8. You will meet your cohort of fellow pilgrims and contract together for the following 12 months
9. You will be facilitated by our incredible team through the 12 months journey with death together with your cohort (you are no longer obliged to take a mentor but we heartily recommend it if you can)
10. The Zoom calls with Alexandra and the wider community happen once or twice a week and you have lifetime access to the Zoom calls for as long as they sustain
11. The wider community holding provides you with an established global community of contacts, networks and resources; we have a shared set of ethics and standards which we mutually adhere to
12.  To be considered a Sacred Circle doula will afford you a respectable reputation grounded in strong ethics; our reputation is for providing robust radical, ethical and sustainable preparation for death and service

What is covered in the Face to Face aspect of the Course?

1. Welcome, Grounding, Contracting, Consent Process
2. Ceremony and Ritual (throughout the whole time together)
3. Mapping the Ancestral Landscape
4. The Nature of Trauma and Attachment (and its impact on a “good death”)
5. Healing Trauma (Grief is the Medicine)
6. Introduction to Keening and Lament (Song, Sound and Silence workshop)
7. The timeline of death and grief (and how a doula can serve)
8. What to expect at a death
9. Laying out the Dead (practical workshop)
10. Grief Ceremony (a rare cathartic opportunity)
11. Living Wake
12. Mapping your pathway forward and the importance of a Strong Ending

The “vibe” of the course is earthy, radical, loving, transformative, more funny and light than you might imagine but also deep, we encounter our shadows, we explore the dark places together. The whole experience is woven together with ritual and ceremony; held very consciously with the Unseen; we are working with Land, Place and Space and so every group constellation and every location will make each course completely different. The facilitators all bring their unique and diverse skills but we all share a secular but spiritual approach rooted in Earth based traditions, we embrace animism and ancestral work, although the word “shamanic” is overused and not quite culturally relevant it does go some way to describing the way that we work. We work with story; we sit and learn to listen deeply by listening to each other’s stories; much of the experience is beyond words; we explore sound and silence together including keening (which if you don’t know what this is you may wish to look it up before you come), we expect people might very well cry a lot (and we welcome it if you do) and we do not fix, we will not stem your tears. Our courses invariably include a lot of laughter and silliness as well; always, we believe, in a respectful way.

If you would like to hear some voices of those who have gone before you in this work do check out our podcast “Conversations with Death” for a diverse range of experience of the course and if you have any questions please email our team on [email protected] 

The course begins the moment you sign up. The number of places for 2025 is limited so don't hold back if you feel called! We ask you to sign up according to which face to face course you wish to attend (details and dates below) but do remember the course is 18 months long and requires a commitment to personal study, engagement in the Journey with Death and the community as well as the Retreat. Make sure you read our student agreement and if you have any questions before you commit then throughout 2025 we will be holding Zoom meetings to answer questions; so email [email protected] to get on those calls or to add your question (they will be recorded). 

One last but rather important thing; please note that the residential retreats take place in centres with multiple beds in rooms. We thought long and hard about how to allocate rooms and whether we should do the "single room supplement" thing but often people need a single room because of a disability so it would be exclusionary of us to make them more expensive. Instead the rooms will be allocated according to people's needs (to the best of our ability) which means if you have a disability or very high priority for a single room you can email us on [email protected] to see if there are any single rooms available before you sign up; and we will hold it for you while you join. What that means for the rest of us (the shy, the snorers and the restless... is that we need to be prepared in advance to share and bring earplugs)... It's all part of the adventure!

If you have any concerns or questions clear them up with us at [email protected] before clicking on the Sign Up button. We're here for you, every step of the way.

The team for 2025 will be announced around April time, you can expect a lead facilitator then one additional facilitator for every 6 attendees so that discussions take place in intimate breakout groups while the main topic discussions all together in the roundhouse. 

To meet our facilitator team see this page HERE

How long the course is for you depends on when you sign up, there are basically 3 phases; the space between signing up and retreat where you get to explore the materials and join our community calls, read our newsletters and explore our recordings of past skills sessions. 

Then there is the retreat itself, we always try to work around the time of the Autumn Equinox as it is most conducive to the spirit of the Work. 

Then you have an integrative space between the retreat and the start of the 12 months Journey with Death which runs from January after the retreat ends. 

This years retreat venue is the spectacular Trefacwn in Pembrokeshire. The venue itself is just wonderful with comfortable shared accommodation, a fresh water cold swimming pool, sauna and the most beautiful group space you will ever see Ty Sanctaidd (Holy House), a hand built, cob walled roundhouse with log fire and extraordinary acoustics to lament in! 

The venue is very near (walking distance for the fit, a short car ride for the rest of us) the beaches and coastal path of Pembrokeshire, a truly liminal and spiritual experience to be had high up on the clifftops. Nearby is also the sacred well of St Non, a wellspring of renewal and rebirth. 

We will have one of our regular chefs with us to prepare beautiful, locally sourced meals. 

The Retreat content is deep but we go at it gently. The sessions run from 10am - 1pm and 3pm - 6pm with space in between for integration, rest and play. We are toying with the idea of giving folks the opportunity to surrender their phones and tech entirely for the duration; it's just such a shame when the opportunity to deeply retreat gets filled with scrolling on instagram! 

We will arrive on 20th September in the afternoon to check in around 4pm and then dinner will be around 6pm. That first evening we will gather and cover the group agreement and introductions but that is the only evening we work. 

For the 4 subsequent days we follow the 10 - 1 and 3 - 6 pattern, with sharing circle and discussion topics in the morning and skills based sessions in the afternoon. 

We take time to settle into long listening, so you will want to be comfortable so wear loose clothing and layers, bring slippers for inside Ty Sanctaidd and you may like to bring yourself a nest of cushions and a blanket or a folding chair from home if sitting on the floor isn't for you. The Ty Sanctaidd has gorgeous comfortable wooden seats around its outside but depending on numbers we will bring the size of the circle smaller; so a folding chair, jack chair or cushion will be a good thing to bring. 

There is disabled accessible bedrooms on the ground floor of the main house at Trefacwn please specify if you need one of these rooms due to mobility challenges. Please know that the paths are gravel, the terrain undulates and the path into Ty Sanctaidd is up a slope. It is, we believe, essentially accessible for most with support and we want you to know that we are 100% here to support you if you have access needs. If you have any concerns about that in advance then please email us on [email protected]

The pool would be used entirely at your own risk and we will bore you with some risk assessments on arrival because it can be slippy underfoot and the temperature especially at that time of year means it is for the most hardy only, neither Sacred Circle nor the venue can take responsibility for those choosing to use it, we get access to it as a privilege as it is the private space of the owner. The sauna we pay extra for so it won't be open every night, we will use on the evening after the grief ceremony - again, use of sauna is entirely at your own risk. 

For a glimpse of the venue here is their website, although it doesn't show everything:  https://www.trefacwn.co.uk/

Please do not contact them directly about this course including requests for additional nights, this is something to approach us about so we can co-ordinate communications with them in an efficient way. 

If you happen to have the whole amount of the course fees £2950 and you can pay it in one go then we love you, because as a social enterprise we take joy in cash flow! We have 12 months and 18 months payment plans below, the 18 month payment plan will only be available until April 2025, as the date for the retreat nears we need to make sure we are covering costs, so if you need a lower monthly payment it is in your interest to sign up sooner rather than later. 

The Sign Up page for Wales is here, please follow the link and choose the payment option for you: 

WALES SIGN UP PAGE

There is a Bursary available and this year it is strictly for those who are under-represented in death doula work (please see the Policy page for more information). We will not be awarding a bursary to everyone who applies. If you do not experience additional barriers due to systemic oppression then we will ask you to look at how you might be able to afford it, if you are truly called. And we will support you to look at ways to raise the funds. We cannot, as a social enterprise, continue in the same vein as recent years being overly generous to everyone who asks, it is just not sustainable! Please respect this difficult position we find ourselves in when people petition us for money off. 

Check out the Venue here: www.eiri.ie

Simple and beautiful accommodation, wonderful food and a wild swimming beach just minutes away! 

We will arrive from 4pm on 4th October, gather for dinner and start that evening. Each day we work 10 - 1 and 3 - 6 and we encourage you to put your out of office on, limit phone use to emergencies only and take time out to just REST! A gentle schedule in a stunning location. 

Cost is 2500€

If you are able to pay in full then as a social enterprise we love you, because we always need cash flow but if you need to spread payments (we still love you), you can... 

Follow this link to the Sign up page for Ireland intake and choose the payment option that suits you best: 

IRELAND SIGN UP

This course is really beautiful, gentle and radical at the same time. It has taken form over the past 9 years and we 100% stand behind its integrity, power and impact. 

The time requirements are 5nights, 4 full days of in-person retreat experience (if you miss any part of that we cannot in clear consience say you have completed it as every moment of it matters). There are 12 sessions per month with your cohort called Check In sessions, 2 hours per month and require a minimum of 3 hours preparation using our workbook materials as a guide. Additionally there are also 2 hours per month Skills Sessions which are recorded. 

Attendance at the Check Ins is strongly encouraged and if you missed more than 4 in 12 months then we couldn't in clear conscience say you completed the course. Attendance at the Skills Sessions is also encouraged but not mandatory, so long as you watch the recording afterwards. 

There are weekly community zoom calls lasting one hour - they are completely open and voluntary but attendance at them demonstrates the kind of commitment to community and connection that a doula needs, so they are very much there for your own good. 

The course itself a curious mix of intensity and nuance. The in-person retreat is held by world class facilitators and includes deep dive inquiries into Ancestry, Lament and Ceremony. We hold an inclusive, spiritual but secular space (meaning ALL faiths and none are welcome) but we do not shy away from the sacredness of Death. For some people this is strong and challenging and for others they rejoice in it.

The 12 months of online inquiry takes a slow gentle but well held and guided amble through our Course Companion Guide. You travel through this, again with brilliant facilitators and your cohort that you met in person on retreat. The skills we learn and the topics we cover are deep and invite a lifetime of exploration. You are going to need to pay attention and prepare yourself for the calls, simply attending and hoping to vicariously absorb the material will do yourself a disservice. 

So do you have what it takes to sit in Circle with Death as our Teacher? Can you hold your own in group situations because we are not the mollycoddling types! You will need to be able to take responsibility for yourself and for asking for your own needs to be met in a mature way. 

We hold a non-hierarchical space which means we do not treat you as knowing less or being less just because you join as a student and at the same time our facilitators are incredibly experienced in this field of death and dying. If you are an experienced facilitator can you allow yourself to be held and led? 

We ask these questions borne of experience, to help you prepare and to introduce at the very outset the kind of people we know will thrive in this course and to filter out those who are not yet ready. If you suspect you are not yet ready then please do email us for a conversation because you might be... or maybe the Community Educators course would be a stepping stone for you. 

What we are looking for are: 

Mature, self responsible individuals with an established self care practice and some form of regular discipline eg spiritual practice 

and

Humble, open hearted souls who are willing to engage, participate and show up for the Work. 

and

Folks who have support, community and some kind of mentoring and supervision habit.

Fear not, of course we are not looking for the finished article before you even start! The right people will understand why we are setting our stall out like this and even if you know you need support to reach the qualities above then you are definitely our kind of people! 

It's the folks that have none of the above in place that we want to hold carefully and say "not yet... not yet..."

If you DO feel you align with what we are saying then can you imagine the power of sharing space with folks who feel the same call to learn from Death as a Teacher?!

Join us! You are so welcome.