How to Be a Companion on the End of Life Journey

Tracy Chalmers is an end-of-life doula and co-founder of the End-of-Life Doula Association of Canada.

She works as a forest therapy guide through her organization, EndWell.

She's also a facilitator of the End-of-Life Doula Care program at Douglas College, and she serves as a hospice volunteer and mentor.

Tracy's first book, The Nature of the Journey, is a guidebook offering a nature-based approach to enhance the end-of-life journey.

You can connect with Tracy Chalmers and purchase your copy of her book at endwell.ca. That's endwell.ca. You're going to hear how Tracy got her start.

in volunteering as a candy striper when she was a teenager.

She worked in the palliative care unit, and she recalls that it was terrifying at first, but then she discovered that there was a lot of love and a lot of peace in the rooms and at the bedside of these patients.

She's been a hospice volunteer for 10 years now in her hometown in Canada, and she talks about the spectrum of gifts and roles that volunteers bring to hospice volunteering.

Tracy also serves as part of a vigil volunteer team at the hospice agency where she volunteers.

These are volunteers that sit at the bedside and stay when an actively dying person is alone.

Rituals are a big part of Tracy's work, and she talks about how important it is to use rituals that are meaningful to the patient and not just for the provider or volunteer.

She says she always asks permission before offering any intervention, and she tells a story to illustrate why that's important.

Her book, The Nature of the Journey, is written to support caregivers and companions of the dying.

In this conversation, you're really going to hear how Tracy's heart for doula work shines through.

I hope you listen to the whole thing.

There's a lot to learn.

Music Tracy, it's so great to have you with me.

Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much, Helen.

It's great to be here.

Well, we are going to jump in with a question from the end of life deck.