About

I’m Joann (she,her) and I live in Essex, VT. I graduated from UVM’s EOL Doula program in October 2023. Since then I’ve been attending Wayfinders meetings in anticipation of their next training to support folks looking for access to M.A.I.D (Medical Aid in Dying) and am active in the North East EOL Doula Network, UVM EOL Doula Book Club, our local Death Cafe and most recently completed my Death Literacy Specialist training. I’m currently offering my work in this field with a “Pay From Your Heart” model for increased accessibility to end of life support.

I work as an embodiment coach teaching folks how to heal themselves by developing an empowered relationship with their bodies through trauma informed yoga and my roles as a TREⓇ provider (tension and trauma release exercise) and as a Trauma Informed Weight Lifting Coach (TIWL). In my business I work a lot with grief, often with the losses that come from traumatic experiences, but then I started attracting folks working with bereavement, which is one of the threads that brought me to this work.

I love teaching and holding space for individuals and groups and look forward to finding unique ways to support folks in contemplating and planning for the loss of loved ones as well as their own deaths. I’m here personally to learn how to appreciate my life more through conscious death work and share that in community. I desire to find ways to deliver this content wrapped in self care strategies that ground us in the here and now through our embodied journeys, including the experience of this body’s dissolution.

For My Clients

As a Death Literacy Educator I teach people who want to grow their consciousness and accept the promise of death so they can live and die with more peace and ease. I aim to:

Normalize the death and dying process for enhanced connection and less isolation.
Offer practical skills and understandings of death and dying so folks can ease their stress and anxiety.
Hold space and guide people in identifying their values, contemplating death, and creating self and co care plans for moving through grief and bereavement.

As a Death Doula I work in a non medical capacity to provide education, and practical, emotional, physical, and spiritual care and support. This might look like:

Creating legacy projects
Preparing advanced care plans, healthcare directives, etc.
Healing relationships
Coordinating help and care (including MAID and VSED)
Researching funeral, burial, memorials, celebrations and other EOL rituals
Planning rituals and sitting vigil

Grief and bereavement support
Mind/body/heart Support
Guided gentle yoga; breathwork; guided visualizations and/or meditation
Aromatherapy
Mindfulness practices
Multiple trauma informed practices for managing pain

My Commitment to diversity and anti-racism

I teach people who want to grow from stress and injury to heal themselves by developing an empowered relationship with their bodies. The stress and injury caused by living in our racialized culture that actively persecutes certain members of my human family harms all of us. Healing happens in community, in relationship.

It is my deepest intention to create inclusive safe spaces for human connection and healing. It is my sincerest desire to cause no harm–and I acknowledge that I will, at times, cause harm. As a white yoga teacher I am working to recognize where I may be appropriating yoga and take restorative actions. I am committed to doing my work to untangle my own bias, to educate myself, to make reparations, and to change culture by supporting others who are willing to do the uncomfortable work of healing our own culturally racialized ways of being in the world.

All that said, I live in very white rural Vermont and am rather introverted. I have only limited experience in diverse groups. At this stage of my growth I am expanding my awareness of the ways I perceive the world from my white perspective and center my white experiences in my offerings. I am strengthening my racial literacy, learning, and refining my offerings to decolonize my courses. I still have many blind spots in myself to uncover and much to learn as a white woman and an educator and facilitator committed to becoming increasingly anti-racist in myself and my work.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, the Abenaki people, on which I live, work, and play, now called Vermont. I make this acknowledgement to show respect for the people and their 12,000 years on this unceded land. I honor their sacrifice and centuries old traditions of expressing gratitude for the Earth and her gifts.

As a cis gendered woman I benefit from the advantage of living in a heteronormative society. I am witness to the chronic pain, suffering and societal aggression towards LGBTQIA folks in the U.S. Although it is not my direct experience, I have close family and friends, peers and colleagues who are experiencing harm and discrimination in their lives. I am committed to expanding my understanding and refining and/or rebuilding my methods and practices so they are accessible to all people, regardless of gender identity. By continually studying and engaging in trauma informed movement communities I am learning and adapting my conditioned way of being in diverse communities so that I show up in ways that honor all folks’ lived experiences. I welcome feedback for my own growth and refinement and remain open to others in this growth journey.

A bit more about me…

As a mother of 3 young adults, and most recently my first grandchild (!), I’m humbled every day by all I have to learn from them. When I pull myself away from my inner workaholic, I enjoy time with my family; hiking and paddling with friends; foraging for mushrooms; snowshoeing; playing with my sax; collaging; reading and learning how to keep my house plants alive! I am also blessed with a teacher, guru, and sangha in one of yoga’s ancient goddess traditions where I spend much time in introspection, self inquiry, meditation, travel, and practice.