The Hardest Part Happens Before Hospice Begins
CareDoula® teaches what families, end-of-life doulas, and healthcare professionals need to understand before and beyond hospice services.
Guidance in the Work
You’ve already seen the gap
If you’ve spent time beside advanced illness, you’ve seen the confusion, the changing goals, the family disagreements and the questions nobody seems able to answer.
And there’s the feeling that something important is happening, but no one is clearly explaining what it means.
You may have experienced it in your own family or may see it in your professional work, or you may simply be the person others turn to when things become difficult.
Most people think support begins with hospice. It doesn’t. The hardest part often happens before hospice begins.
When you are the one people lean on, you already know what it’s like to walk someone through advanced illness and their last days.
You stay when things get hard… when others turn away.
For some people, noticing this gap becomes more than concern; it becomes a calling to serve. And eventually they discover the End-of-Life Doula role and wonder: “Could I actually do this in a real way, beyond my own circle? “
Yes.
But Instinct alone isn’t enough
When you begin supporting people outside your own family and friends, the work asks for more than compassion.
What you’ve seen families face:
What this work requires:
This is where CareDoula® begins
CareDoula® was built around the period families understand the least and need the most support: the time before hospice begins.
Because if you understand that period well, everything else becomes clearer.
This is where CareDoula® begins.
Our Foundational Training
Neighbor to Neighbor
Learn the Top 10 Issues Families Face Before Hospice Begins—and why understanding them changes everything about how you support others.
Real People, Real Stories
Trusting Myself
“Working with you has helped me align with what feels right to me; validation from someone with your knowledge and experience in this field has changed me forever…”
You’re such a teacher!
“I so appreciate the chance to learn with you. You’re such a teacher! I love that you speak from your own experience, that you welcome any and every question, that you somehow ‘hold space’ for where every person is at. And I love that you speak easily, from a deep place of integrity and that you allow your amusement free reign!”
Deanna’s years of experience allows her to speak very clearly…
“…Deanna’s years of experience allows her to speak very clearly and easily about how issues at the end-of-life and the types of things we need to work through…She taught me a lot about reorienting myself as an instrument for my person. I think it’s really brilliant how she’s able to do that.”
She makes this very difficult subject matter understandable…
“Deanna is warm, she’s funny…she makes this very difficult subject matter understandable…”
…an amazing teacher…
“And this beautiful, sacred journey continues…honestly, it took a lot out of me to accomplish, but it was all sooo worth it. Thank You Deanna for being such an amazing teacher…”
…thought provoking material…
“You have put together a well thought out series of classes that is filled with both thought provoking material and also with information that enhances people’s personal journeys. It isn’t often that happens.”
For those drawn to take this further, here is what the work becomes…
Certified CareDoula®
The first End-of-Life Doula Certificate Program in the United States, founded in 2010.
The Certified CareDoula® program provides professional training, mentorship, and community for those ready to serve families with steadiness and skill.
This is not casual learning. This is professional training for people ready to understand the role clearly and build a real service.
Most end-of-life doula training begins too late. CareDoula® was built to begin around the period families struggle most to understand—the time before hospice begins.
Over more than two and a half decades at the bedside, three elements have consistently proven essential for steady, effective end-of-life support.
CareDoula’s Signature Three
This is what that includes:
- Pre-Hospice Mastery – Understanding what is happening before hospice, and how to respond clearly.
- Professional Service Structure – Knowing how to offer support with clear boundaries, scope, and direction.
- The Art and Practice of Accompanying the Dying – Being present with steadiness, without overstepping, fixing, or filling the space.
This framework prepares doulas to serve where families are most unsupported (during the in-between time before hospice begins) with clarity, steadiness, and discernment.
Deanna Flores Cochran, RN, CareDoula® Education Founder
For more than 26 years, I’ve walked with families through the difficult stretch from when treatments stop working through the end of life.
Through the years, there were those people within a family system that everyone turned to. Those are the ones coming into end-of-life doula work now.
I created CareDoula® Method for them. For you.
