My name is Bec and I am an End of Life Doula and Funeral Director. I specialise in providing information, resources and support to people and their families as they approach their end of life.

I am a mother of one, originally from the Blue Mountains in NSW. I started my working career in Sydney before making the move to Tasmania in 2006.

I spent six years as a conventional Funeral Director in various aspects and roles within the commercial Industry before making the move in 2017, out of the Industry and on to new adventures. In doing so it has provided me the opportunity to advance my work as an End of Life Doula (something I now know I had been doing for people long before I knew there was a word for it) and also advance the mission of You n’ Taboo – a group founded and run by my partner and myself dedicated to education, honest conversation and increasing death literacy within the community. 

In 2018 I completed my training with Helen Callanan at Preparing the Way and am now in a position to begin formally offering my services to people as an End of Life Doula. From there we have also begun to offer family led funeral services for people who want to have a more intimate and personal approach to death and ceremony for their loved ones.

Everyone dies. We all will reach the end of our lives one way or another. How we arrive at that death and what our dying looks like are things that we can have some input into. Through careful conversation, planning and with the
right support all of us can leave relevant and detailed instructions not only about our medical circumstances but the social and emotional circumstances as well. We can have as much or as little say as we like into the situations we are put into and who we want around us and speaking for us. Not all these decisions are legal ones, although there are very important and relevant legal aspects to the planning process, but sometimes it’s just about how you want it to be, to
feel, and what you want to leave behind for people as a legacy – a Doula does not exist to make those choices for you, rather they help you know your rights and options and support you in the decisions you make.

It has been astounding to me, the amount of people who are uncomfortable with the idea of death and dying, let alone being able to talk openly about it. Often the first conversations people are having about death is after the event,
when they walk into a funeral home – because they are unaware there are other options –  and say, “I don’t know what to do”. Only a few generations ago, death and dying used to be a natural part of life, a community event involving family, friends and neighbours who would grieve and remember together. It was common for the dead to stay in the family home and for the families, their friends and communities to have an integral part of the death care process. Death was an accepted part of life. 

Somewhere along the last few decades, we lost this collective knowledge but by working with a family as a Doula I am able to educate people of this knowledge and help them understand their options and then support them through their decisions. I am not just available for the dying… my role can be to support families, friends, establish networks of care and then assist in after death care as well if a home Funeral is decided upon.

The process of Dying, Death and Ceremony have always been the last rite of passage for a person’s journey on earth. I am passionate about helping people through this final stage of life.