Over the last two years, I’ve offered my six-part Befriending Mortality classes through five different rounds. I’ve been deeply touched by everything participants brought to our shared exploration of Befriending Mortality, and honored by their rave reviews.
“…one of the best workshop series I’ve ever been involved with…a perfect blend of facts and feelings. Holly is thorough and compassionate. It was a safe space for a subject that calls out for one.”
Befriending Mortality Topics
I’m currently accepting inquiries from community members and organizations interested in hosting this series in the fall. Any of these topics can also be explored through personalized consultation or education sessions for individuals, couples, or community groups. Contact me to discuss your interests.
- Befriending Mortality – What happens when we approach death as a teacher? Might we learn better how to care for the dying in our midst, to live in the presence of our mortality, to relate to our dead as something other than “lost,” and to die when it is our turn? Might grief be developed as a skill, not just suffered as an emotion? Could the skill of heartbrokenness be essential to the times we are in?
- Final Disposition – What will happen to your body when you die? What guides this decision? We will pull back the curtain on the full range of options including how to detect green washing when it comes to technologies and products marketed as eco-friendly, including natural organic reduction (also known as human composting, terramation, and soil transformation) and alkaline hydrolysis (aquamation, or water or flameless cremation).
- The Dying Time – How do we support the dying in our midst? What supports might we want for our dying time? We’ll look at the landscape from diagnosis to death: palliative care and hospice; medical aid in dying (MAID), voluntary stopping eating and drinking (VSED), and other forms of “choice in dying”; assembling a care team and the role of an end-of-life doula; and the deaths that don’t go “according to plan.”
- From Death to Disposition – Historically, care for the dead was handled by family and community – and legally, it is still our right to do so. But for many, our ancestral ways of caring for each other after death have been forgotten. We’ll review the aspects of deathcare now outsourced to professionals – bathing, dressing, and transporting the body; sourcing a casket, shroud or urn; handling the paperwork – and consider the benefits of more hands-on engagement.
- Remembering Together – How do we honor, and strengthen, the continuity of relationships across the veil of life and death? We’ll consider inspiring examples of creative ceremonies of bereavement and remembrance, including meaningful funerals, living memorials, and “re-dos” of ceremonies that went wrong or never happened.
- Making a Death Plan – Birth plans have been promoted as a way for expectant parents and their care team to clarify and communicate their values, needs, and preferences for both optimal and unforeseen scenarios. A written death plan can do the same. We’ll review all the elements you may want to consider: physical/ medical, legal/ logistical, emotional/ spiritual, and social/ cultural along the time spectrum of before illness, during the dying time, and after death.
“Holly has a lovely, relaxed manner that is so easy to listen to, such a generous way of holding various options open, honoring different perspectives. She inspires trust through the energy her presence generates, her honesty and humor, and the breadth of her knowledge.”
About Holly
All sessions are designed and led by Holly Pruett, drawing from work with hundreds of clients, eight years of death cafés, and scores of presentations for groups such as Rose Villa, Hopewell House, Friendly House Planning with Pride, The Peaceful Presence Project, Green Burial Council, Holladay Park Plaza, Assoc. of Professional Chaplains–OR, NW Assoc. of Death Education & Bereavement Support.
“Holly’s gentleness, firmness, and deep knowledge and writings are so well matched to her chosen life work.”
Read more about my qualifications. Contact me to book an individual consultation or to explore bringing this content to your community or organization.
Photo: gifts from the land and sea at the mouth of the Klamath River.