My name is Bec and I am an End of Life Doula and Funeral Practitioner. 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.