Laura as a Death Doula
#TEDxGreatMills 2024
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During the pandemic lockdown, I immersed myself in death studies. It was not a new topic for me, but it has been the first time I formalized and personalized it. Since completing my initial studies as a death doula, I have gone out into the world to serve: hospice patients and in doing death awareness and education at a cemetery.
The greatest change, personally, is that I don't seem to have small talk any more. I don't miss it. Since putting myself out there in this calling, I spend a lot of time meeting with people who are also exploring the topics of death and dying. Often, they are doing as I did and also want to serve. Others are making steps in their own lives to address their own "relationship with death." I enjoy the opportunity to support the living and the dying. My own courage and insights grow. My sense of the human community matures. Each death doula has our own practice. I show up as a death doula not as an individual doula working with individual clients but as a volunteer and as a gatherer. I volunteer to spend time supporting and being present with dying people and their families. I also gather people who are facing their concerns and fears and legacies and planning around their own future deaths. I welcome you to reach out. I am a visible part of the "death positive" community but also a new one. I do not, in this work, lead: I am alongside. I am always open to discussion, to supporting others in their paths, and to learning. Some of the ways I have learned: After-Death Care Educator Proficiency Assessment, November 2024, National End-Of-Life Doula Alliance. Certificate of Completion of Five Wishes Presenter Foundations, March 23, 2024, Hospice Foundation of America. NEDA Proficient, March 20, 2024, National End-Of-Life Doula Alliance. Certified End-Of-Life Doula, September 22, 2023, INELDA. Certificate of Completion VIGIL TRAINING, March, 2023, Capital Caring Health. Certificate of Completion, End of Life Doula Training, 2022, INELDA. Certified End-Of-Life Specialist, 2022, Teaching Transitions. |
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Some background on my projects:
The Washington Post – Dying can be a taboo topic. Enter the death doula.
WTOP News – Death doula brings life lessons to Congressional Cemetery with new class
Axios D.C. – Congressional Cemetery’s Death Doula helped me write my obituary
The Hip Senior Podcast – “A Death Doula’s Journey to Spread ‘Death Positivity'”
City Cast D.C. – “Meet D.C.’s Death Doula”
The Hill is Home – The To Do List: Week of January 6, 2023
Go Ask Ali – “It’s Time to Talk About Death w/ Doulas Valoria Walker & Laura Lyster-Mensh”
HillRag – Meet Death Doula Laura Lyster-Mensh: Death Positivity Comes to Congressional Cemetery
Other People’s Pockets – Laura Lyster-Mensh, Death Doula
The Washington Post – At the Congressional Cemetery Death Cafe, life often winds up on the menu
Interdisciplinary Podcast – “Living “Death Days” at the Cemetery”
District Fray Magazine – D.C. Death Cafes: Getting Cozy with Mortality
Healthnews – A Guide to Dying: We Talked to 3 Death Doulas
The Washington Post – Dying can be a taboo topic. Enter the death doula.
WTOP News – Death doula brings life lessons to Congressional Cemetery with new class
Axios D.C. – Congressional Cemetery’s Death Doula helped me write my obituary
The Hip Senior Podcast – “A Death Doula’s Journey to Spread ‘Death Positivity'”
City Cast D.C. – “Meet D.C.’s Death Doula”
The Hill is Home – The To Do List: Week of January 6, 2023
Go Ask Ali – “It’s Time to Talk About Death w/ Doulas Valoria Walker & Laura Lyster-Mensh”
HillRag – Meet Death Doula Laura Lyster-Mensh: Death Positivity Comes to Congressional Cemetery
Other People’s Pockets – Laura Lyster-Mensh, Death Doula
The Washington Post – At the Congressional Cemetery Death Cafe, life often winds up on the menu
Interdisciplinary Podcast – “Living “Death Days” at the Cemetery”
District Fray Magazine – D.C. Death Cafes: Getting Cozy with Mortality
Healthnews – A Guide to Dying: We Talked to 3 Death Doulas