A Death Doula's Guide to a Meaningful End
$51.76
- Paperback
224 pages
- Release Date
13 April 2026
Summary
Most people don’t know how to have a “good death”–but Jane Callahan does. Years after watching her mother’s traumatic death in a broken health care system, Jane found herself working an unfulfilling job as a marketing writer for corporations, but on nights and weekends she’d volunteer with terminally ill people awaiting death in hospice. After training as an end-of-life doula, she has spent years witnessing how our culture’s resistance to talking about death leads to preventa…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781556528262 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1556528264 |
| Author: | Jane K. Callahan |
| Publisher: | Chicago Review Press |
| Imprint: | Chicago Review Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 224 |
| Release Date: | 13 April 2026 |
| Weight: | 363g |
| Dimensions: | 15mm x 147mm x 226mm |
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Critics Review
“This is an important resource for anyone who seeks to know more about death and death doulas. Highly recommended.” –Library Journal
“With heart and humor, Jane K. Callahan gently guides the reader through the topics that many of us prefer not to think about but that all of us will one day face. Through candid stories, both personal and professional, Jane shares her expert wisdom–earned from her many years as a death doula–with the warmth of a trusted friend. A must-read for anyone struggling with big existential questions about their own mortality or the loss of a loved one.” –Mikki Brammer, bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover
“It’s marvelous. Callahan doesn’t just deal in broad philosophical ideas but gives useful, practical, actionable advice on everything from how to engage in conversations that help people review their lives, to how to self-advocate for a better death (the only one you’ll ever have!) in a medical system ill-equipped to have those conversations, and even includes details like essential items doulas carry in their bags. It’s sweet, it’s funny, and with real insight from the writer’s own life and the experiences that led her to this work. In a society that still shrinks from conversations about death, the only certainty we have left, this book is a vital resource.” –Erica Buist, author of This Party’s Dead: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World’s Death Festivals and features writer at the Guardian
Jane K. Callahan
Jane Callahan has been a death doula for nearly a decade, initially completing training with the International End-of-Life Doula Association (INELDA). She holds a certificate in end-of-life planning from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, is certified by the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA), and has worked with four hospices in two states. Jane has been published in PBS’s Next Avenue, Raleigh News & Observer, Commercial Observer, Reno News & Review, and Next City. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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