Caring For Our Communities at the End of Life
Professional End-of-Life Doula training, grounded in the work families need most.
Guidance in the Work
You’ve already been doing this work
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.
And you hear of the End-of-Life Doula role, and at some point you’ve wondered: Could I actually do this in a real way, beyond my own circle?
Yes.
Instinct alone isn’t enough
When you serve beyond your own circle, the work asks for more than instinct.
What you’ve seen families face:
What this work requires:
This is where CareDoula® begins
When you are inspired to help make the decline-through-dying time more peaceful for others, the End-of-Life Doula role is what holds that calling.
CareDoula® was built to form the path for the one who accompanies, beginning in the advanced illness phase, where families need clear steadiness most.
This is where CareDoula® begins.
Our Foundational Training
Neighbor to Neighbor
Explains the Top 10 Issues Families Face at the End of Life AND What To Do About Them.
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 focuses on bedside presence. CareDoula® was built differently, around the full scope of what families actually face, especially in 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.
