Like many adult daughters, Rhyena cared for her mother the last months of her life. In the hours, days, and weeks after her mother's death, Rhy waited for the flood of sadness, and overwhelming emotion, but that was not her experience, at all. She found herself navigating the idea of the profoundity of her mother's death, but not experiencing the sadness, and grief she expected, and felt so much love and gratitude for the journey she and her mother had shared. Her lived experience was of missing her mother, but also of completeness, and a life, and death, well lived.
The experience changed almost everything for Rhyena, and led her to become a death doula, death educator, Death Cafe facilitator, and hospice volunteer among many other opportunities this experience inspired.
Join us, as we explore the many experiences of grief.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
As an End of Life Doula, Rhyena embraces the final years, months, and days of our lives. Her role is one of compassionate, non-medical support, providing guidance about the end of life. She is passionate about helping people plan for and embrace an intentional, conscious death. She very much enjoys working directly with clients of all traditions on legacy, life review, solo aging, caregiving, advanced care directives, end of life planning, anticipatory grief and finding one’s way after profound loss. She also loves teaching and facilitating programs on the end of life. She has led Death Cafes, taught her original courses Spiritual Dimensions of Nearing Death, and End of Life Intentions for Dummies, Pragmatists and Seekers for more than five years for Mission Hospice and the Elisabeth Kubler Ross Foundation. A JewBu and former documentary filmmaker and arts manager, Rhyena lives in Berkeley. For more information, go to www.EndofLifeGuidance.org or email her at rhyhalpern@gmail.com .
