Transform Lives–Including Your Own

Caregivers | Volunteers | Professionals

A Growing Demand for Compassionate Care

No doubt you’ve been hearing about the Silver Tsunami fast approaching, we are actually in the middle of it now (2025). By 2030, there will be more people over 65, than under 18 for the 1st time in history. Add to that the fact that non-paid caregivers (family/friends/neighbors) are 7:1 now and rapidly decreasing. By 2030, it will be 4:1. This is a HUGE shift we are facing. We need to prepare now.

The world needs more end-of-life advocates and the End-of-Life Doula role is perfect for this gap. End-of-Life Doulas are trained professionals who can offer non-medical support and advocacy. They provide emotional, physical and practical support to individuals and their loved ones during the very specific time from when treatments begin to stop working to early bereavement.

When you’ve had it with putting yourself last on the list of priorities and are ready to invest your time and energy in what gives you meaning in your life, everything will unfold for you. I know what you are wanting because I talk to people like you every day about this. You are longing to bring meaning in your life and you are passionate about reducing suffering at the end of life. If you are inspired to serve more deeply, I’ve got you.

What Sets Our Education Apart?

  • Expert-Led Training. Learn from a pioneer in the grassroots end-of-life doula movement with over 25 years of hands-on experience in end-of-life care as a board certified Hospice Nurse (15 years), palliative consultant and end-of-life doula in private practice (since 2005), as well as a consultant and corporate developer of hospice doula programs since 2016.
  • Unique Focus Areas: Strong Personal Journey Component and Pre-Hospice Advocacy.

  • Comprehensive Curriculum. Understand the key end-of-life issues, gain practical tools, emotional support techniques, and learn the unique characteristics a doula must have to serve at their highest level.

Are you inspired? Continue on!

Your Journey to Certification


Our curriculum is divided into three phases, ensuring you build a strong foundation before advancing to practical and leadership skills:

Phase 1: Foundations of End-of-Life Doula Work

  • Physiological processes of approaching death and nonmedical interventions
  • Understanding of current end-of-life issues and how to navigate them.
  • Key communication and listening techniques specifically for our work.

Phase 2: Practical Tools and Techniques

  • Supporting families through anticipatory grief, dying, death and early bereavement.
  • Develop meaningful end-of-life rituals and and your own special processes
  • Complete a personal self-reflective pathway integral to structuring your unique service.

Phase 3: Advanced Skills and Professional Support

  • Building your doula practice based on your personal legacy.
  • Creating your unique offer, pricing, packages and promotions
  • Community education, networking and leadership in the end-of-life care community.
  • The art of accompanying the dying and their family.
  • Care of the doula.
  • The most essential skills you MUST have when you are serving professionally.
  • How to navigate and consult with the families you serve.
  • All the issues you must know in end of life.
  • All about vigil.
  • Pre-hospice services and pre-hospice palliative care knowledge.
  • Tools of the end-of-life doula practice.
  • Physiological issues and non-medical interventions.
  • Developing your ancillary dying & death services.
  • Death and after death issues.
  • Early grief.
  • Step-by-step blueprint to build your framework of service.
  • Creating your unique offer, pricing and presenting (packaging).
  • Community sessions to spread the word about the best end-of-life care possible.
  • The best ways to position your service to showcase your service.
  • Promotions, offline and online in this very sensitive field.
  • Building your system, practice, method and delivery of service.
  • Handling clients who cannot afford your service.
  • Contracts, agreements, liability.
  • Handling difficult situations.
  • Delivering your services.
  • Documents for serving and community education.
  • From your front door through theirs (1st visit).
  • … everything you need to serve & build a practice.

The truth is you must have the heart for this service and then build from there.

Hear From Our Graduates


“I was really struggling to find my place/niche as a Doula. Deanna helped me to get clear on my gifts not only as a Death Doula but as a human being. She helped me to see that the person I am has to fit into the business I create. I had been fighting this idea…”
Rachel Grigor
Minnesota
Deanna Cochran has been a leader, mentor, and a friend to me for many years now. I recently retained Deanna to provide some professional guidance for me regarding my thoughts on moving forward toward developing my own business. I have a broad background, but lack the many varied seemingly qualifying letters such as RN, PhD, LLC, etc. I trust Deanna and was immediately heartened when she said “Sarah, no more qualification is needed. Your credentials and experience are enough!” Within our hour together, she helped me to narrow down and focus on the viable business paths I have to pick from, but which I was unable to see and arrive at on my own. I highly recommend anyone who is in need of professional guidance to retain Deanna. My money and time was wisely invested in Deanna and I will continue to work with her as I further develop my business and services.
Sarah Leach
Texas

It’s very simple.

Dive in at Your Own Pace

Get comfy, grab your favorite snack, and explore our online end-of-life treasure trove covering everything from sitting by the bedside to client advocacy. Learn whenever suits you best, and soak up the knowledge at your own speed.

Roll up your Sleeves

Now, it’s time to explore! Take what you’ve learned and put it into action. Plan for yourself or step into new ways of serving others. The more you learn and put into practice and follow the roadmap we set out for you, the better you’ll feel. And you don’t have to do it alone, you have us to talk to along the way!

Watch Your Confidence Grow!

From being more equipped to handle yourself and your own family and circle of friends … all the way to delivering exceptional service in your community with your own end-of-life offer, get ready to witness your growth and be a part of reducing suffering during the dying time in your area!

BEFORE YOU ARE HALF WAY THROUGH THIS PROGRAM, YOU WILL..


  • Know exactly how to care for yourself as you care for others during this very sensitive time.
  • Feel more confident about what to do and how to help yourself and your own family and friends.
  • Have a clear actionable plan in place for your own needs and if you are professional, your own offerings.
  • Be clear on if you want to serve others on a higher level, and if so, how you want to do that.
  • Know how to talk about the very sensitive issues about the end of life with your family, friends and your greater community.
  • Be able to clearly articulate what you do and who you do it for (on demand) confidently.

Scroll through the rest of the page to learn
about the BONUSES that are in addition to
Certified CareDoula® Essentials.

Deanna hosts a LIVE mentoring sessions dedicated to helping you move from point A to point B. Get your pressing questions answered. You are not alone implementing what you learn. She is dedicated to help you get your foundation in place, clarify how you want to use this knowledge, help you structure your service if that is what you want along with your promotions strategy. You will know how to take your first steps as an end-of-life doula in private practice. She will teach you not only how to deal with the dying time, but also the professional issues of consulting, leadership, planning and promotions through community education. And her special sauce–the glue that will make you successful–is the way she teaches you to weave self care throughout every step of your service creation. It is the backbone of your business. These sessions are recorded.

You will also have access for an entire YEAR to our CareDoula® Way Membership, which is our full spectrum end-of-life training ground and membership community with all that you see below. We are adding training, benefits and features monthly.

In addition to Certified CareDoula, we offer a growing library of bonus classes (added monthly) to teach you about the biggest topics (as well as the obscure) from the time period of ‘when-treatments-begin-to-stop-working’ to early bereavement.

All through the month, as you study, submit your personal questions. Deanna will answer all new questions via our members only podcast. New episodes released monthly. Really understand what is happening and what to do about it.

Audios added monthly. One of the things people love about Deanna is the way she explains the elements of the pre-hospice and the dying time period–her rationale and reasonings behind the things she suggests to do. Every single month she is bringing over hours of audio from 25+ years of teaching families, volunteers and professionals within healthcare and outside of it. We won’t stop until all of her timeless teachings are here (along with new material too)!

Throughout the year we will delight you with special guests and sessions!

This family centered educational course provides extensive guidance to empower the caregiver during the time from when treatments begin to stop working through early bereavement.

Dive in to our 30 day, step-by-step workshop to develop the framework of your service.

Deanna has created 2 proprietary tools to help you figure out the financial aspects of providing professional services. One is our ‘Session Rate Calculator,’ which helps you develop your pricing and packages. The other is our ‘Cost of Doing Business Calculator,’ which helps you figure out exactly how much actual time, energy and money you are spending on your service. This is critical information to know.

Members receive significant discounts to selected events, courses and workshops.

Customized Plan


Deanna is known for her innovative style of teaching and her ability to help you custom build your vision. Not everyone needs the same thing at all as she knows from decades of mentoring trailblazers.

If you have done all of your research, have approval from all of the decision makers in your life and are ready to train now, we invite you to speak with our team to assess what you need and create your best blueprint for your success.

And if you want us to help you implement your plan, just ask.

Have Questions? We’ve Got Answers.

Certified CareDoula® is the premiere End-of-Life Doula Certificate Program in the US, created by Deanna Flores Cochran, RN, in 2010, in response to years of people asking her how she was serving as an end-of-life doula in her own private practice.

Deanna naturally is ahead of the curve and in 2005, discovered blogging and was sharing her work and educating. People from all over the world found her and after years of talking to people on the phone about their strong desire for guidance and mentorship in their practice creation and service, she created her course: “Accompanying the Dying: A Practical Guide and Awareness Training.” This is the core of Certified CareDoula®

It is the first End-of-Life Certificate program for laypeople as well as healthcare professionals. Deanna knew there were many people who would be amazing end-of-life advocates and activists who needed deep education in accompanying people from the time period of ‘when-treatments-begin-to-stop-working’ through early bereavement.

If you have questions before enrolling, begin HERE

Deanna Flores Cochran, RN, creator of Certified CareDoula® is your teacher. A native of Washington, DC and longtime resident of Austin, Texas, Deanna is an internationally known, highly respected leader in end-of-life doula education. Through trial and error, she created a powerfully effective practice model–CareDoula®. Deanna’s mission is to help others succeed. For a history of her groundbreaking initiatives.

The actual course and certification is created for completion within16 weeks.The program is self-paced, so you can fit it into your schedule. Some do it in 2-3 months, but most people enjoy it so much they end up taking their time and finish in 4-6 months.

Most people report they spend about 4 – 10 hours per week (depending on their goals) in their study (which includes, assignments, reading suggested books, and business planning).

There is no rush to complete this program during an arbitrary length of time. There is no national requirement to have an end-of-life doula certification, so you may serve a family now without one. Take it step by step. The most important thing is you are well trained and know what you are doing.

No, prior experience is NOT necessary, and neither is a medical background. We provide all the tools and training you need to succeed.

There are so many ways that a non-medical role like End-of-Life Doula can support a person and family. People that have medical backgrounds are equipped to help in ways that people with non-medical backgrounds may not be able to do, that’s true.

And what we all share is a heart for service to the dying, their families and circle of support. We are all from every background you can imagine, our skillsets are varied and so are our interests. No two doulas will offer the same service in the same way. Here are differences are celebrated.

Yes! Deanna is known for her deep dives in all aspects of end-of-life care as a doula, the development of a private service, community education, promotions, pricing and packaging and running a business. If you’d like to join her tight knit community of people that have been together for years, just let us know you’d like to apply for her Mentorship Immersion at support(at)caredoulaeducation(dot)com.

Graduates work as independent doulas, with hospices, in consultancy roles with community organizations–there are many options. We help you build YOUR specific service in the program. You are an independent practitioner; this is your own small business.

Hospice is the medical team, the leader in medical care at the end of life.

The end-of-life doula role is a non-medial role. Please understand that the skills to accompany people well, after medical considerations are handled, are all NON-MEDICAL. This is what even healthcare professionals want to learn more about as well!

We do not require in-person training, although we do love getting together. As long as you have a strong internet connection, Certified CareDoula® is available anywhere on any device that you can access the internet.

Yes! You will have lifetime access to your training and certification material.

Yes! You can give the Certified CareDoula® as a gift, just contact us at support@caredoulaeducation.com and ask us to set that up for you.

If you have already done your research, got the clearance from the decision makers in your life and are ready to train now, set up a planning call with us and we will set up a blueprint of what would be your best next step. To get the process started, please let us know a little about you HERE.

Are You Ready to Make a Difference?

Take your next step toward toward a more fulfilling life, having impact in your world as an end-of-life doula. Enrollment is open–choose your payment plan and let’s create YOUR way of service!

A Note From Deanna