End-of-Life Guidance
Before Hospice Begins
Helping families, end-of-life doulas, and healthcare professionals navigate
the time before hospice begins and everything that follows.
Whether you’re looking for guidance,
professional training, or certification,
you’ll find a place to begin at CareDoula®.
Choose your starting point.
Get Answers From Someone Who Knows
There are things AI and free courses simply can’t teach: judgment, discernment, and wisdom that come only through experience.
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.
You know the feeling that something important is happening, but no one is clearly explaining what it means.
Maybe you’ve experienced it in your own family. Maybe you see it in your professional work. Or maybe you’re simply the person others turn to when things become difficult.
For more than 26 years, Deanna has helped families navigate serious illness and trained volunteers, healthcare professionals, and end-of-life doulas. One thing has remained true: when people depend on you, you also need someone experienced to depend on.
Instinct alone isn’t enough
Families often face confusion around care decisions, late hospice referrals, and critical moments without the guidance they need.
Supporting them well requires more than compassion, it requires a clear scope, defined boundaries, and a structured way to provide steady, meaningful support.
This is where Deanna’s guidance begins
CareDoula® was built around the period families understand the least and need the most support: the time before hospice begins.
If you’d like to explore these topics and learn at your own pace before deciding what’s next, begin with “Learn What End-of-Life Doulas Should Know” below.
Start Here
Learn What End-of-Life Doulas Should Know
Learn the Top 10 Issues Families Face Before Hospice Begins—and why understanding them changes everything about how you support others.
Meet People Just Like You Who Wanted
Support From Deanna
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 certification…
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.
Over 26 years at the bedside, three elements have consistently proven essential.
CareDoula’s Signature Three
This is what that includes:
- Pre-Hospice Mastery – Know what happens before hospice begins.
- Professional Service Structure – Serve with clear boundaries and confidence.
- The Art of Accompanying the Dying – Learn how to be fully present without overstepping.
Learn more about certification. 👉HERE.
Deanna Flores Cochran, RN, CareDoula® Education Founder
For more than 26 years, I’ve walked with families and trained healthcare professionals and non-medical advocates on how to accompany and advocate through the difficult stretch from when treatments stop working through the end of life.
I created a way of accompanying the dying that not only supports those you serve, but also sustains you in the work.
P.S. If you already know you’d like my guidance, you’re welcome to request a conversation.