Certified CareDoula®

…the skills, boundaries
and roadmap required
for a lifelong vocation.

Home Of Artful Presence…
  • Accompany the dying with skill and confidence
  • Navigate the pre-hospice time
  • Create a sustainable practice

You already know how to be there for people you know.
Now it’s time to turn that into real work with people you don’t.

Most end-of-life doula training teaches pieces of the work, but families don’t experience it in pieces.

They experience it all at once: medical uncertainty, emotional overwhelm, family dynamics, and practical decisions—often in the months before hospice even begins.

That’s where most families and practicing doulas feel lost.

CareDoula® was built to train you for this reality.

Not by giving you more information, but by helping you understand how to hold all of it at once and respond without overstepping or getting lost yourself.

Over time, Deanna found that this work comes down to three essential areas. And when you can work across all three, you’re no longer guessing.

This is what we call the …

CareDoula® Signature Three.

#1

To Accompany

What you need to prepare, know, say and do as you are present with the dying and their loved ones.

  • Understand the process of dying and how to bring non-medical comfort
  • Navigate end-of-life systems, choices, and family dynamics
  • Develop communication and listening skills that create steadiness
  • Caring for yourself while you care for others
  • What matters most in the final weeks, days, and hours
#2

Pre-Hospice Mastery

Be thoroughly prepared and skilled to navigate the terrain for personal autonomy, dignity and care.

  • Support anticipatory grief, dying, death, and early bereavement
  • Create meaningful rituals and personalized approaches
  • Pre-hospice advocacy and palliative care awareness
  • Navigating family dynamics and complex situations
  • Understanding physical changes and comfort measures
#3

Professional Service

Know how to navigate a family
from when you meet them until your time with them is over.

  • Providing steady, ongoing support from first contact onward
  • Build a practice that reflects your values and capacity
  • Creating your offer: pricing, packages, and structure
  • Contracts, agreements, and protections
  • Positioning your work in a sensitive, professional way

[See Curriculum Here →]

What makes this training different

This in-depth training is grounded in real world application. Over the course of your study, you will become clear about the structure and steadiness required for this work along with tried and true skills and current trends.

You will receive Pre-Hospice & Advanced Illness training to be thoroughly knowledgeable on helping a family transition into hospice.

You will learn the Art and Practice of Accompanying the Dying from someone with 15 years of hospice nurse experience, and in private practice for 21 years. She has also trained 1000s of trailblazers around the world since 2010 to build their visions and change the face of dying around the world.

You will have step by step guidance through the CareDoula PRO Framework to create your vision of service and be in your community, knowing how to promote who you are and deliver your services.

We teach you exactly what to do to serve the dying,
become known and used by the people in your community.

And there is so much more to this than just learning skills.

You must learn the rationale for why you are doing what you are doing so YOU feel safe and THEY trust you.

And, there are protocols in healthcare and between agencies you must know so you build strong rapport in your community.

And another very important non-negotiable is you must learn how to care for you in this work as you care for others so you don’t burn out.

Free trainings and fragmented bits of chat conversations from a variety of rabbit hole dives can’t help with this.

Certified CareDoula® is where it all does comes together.

I give you everything I got. Cheers to your success!

As you study you will:

  • Feel relief as you begin to see how this work can actually fit into your life—and that it’s possible to sustain a service unique to you that will not burn you out.
  • Feel steadier because you have trusted guidance and you will feel the doubts you’ve been carrying start to leave you and you realize you no longer need to second guess yourself.
  • Become more confident, not in a hopeful ‘act as if’ way, but real confidence because you have structure to rely on and are no longer overthinking.
  • Understand the role as it actually is (not just conceptually) as the gaps that no one talks about begin to close.
  • Recognize your place in this work, holding a grounded, human, non-clinical presence without bypassing what’s hard.
  • Feel part of a professional home where you can also receive support with your own family and you are no longer walking this path alone.

This Independent Study is available with the option of certification.

Next Steps:

  • Decide if you want certification or just the training material itself.
  • If you want only the training material, purchase it within our CareDoula Legacy Library Here at a significant savings (regular tuition is $997).

    After 16 years of focusing on certification for doulas, Deanna is now devoting her energy to practitioners in the field and families who need help.

    So she is now making her lifetime body of work available to the greater public as the need for end-of-life literacy has never been greater than it is now. The greatest burden for care still falls on families unfortunately. And there are more and more holistic practitioners, volunteers and people working in fields that touch advanced illness and the end of life time searching for support. We are here for you!
  • If you want certification through our Independent Study program, you may enroll HERE (or below).

    If you decide to enroll in our Certified CareDoula Independent Study, this is what comes next:
  • Orientation. Once you purchase our certification option, you receive a diagnostic survey and within 3 days of receiving your survey, Deanna will reach out to you for a private 30 minute orientation session to set you up for success. You’ll get clear on where you are, your goals, and best thing to focus on for your personal situation.

    “Deanna took the time to walk me through everything herself. I knew I made the right decision.” ~ Patty M.
  • Step by Step Guidance. Throughout your study, follow the timeline that is developed for you to keep you in momentum. The program is created to be completed in 16 weeks; however, you can finish when its convenient for you. Just follow the steps in completing the tasks in the timeline and you control your pacing. Finish in 2 month or 10, it’s entirely up to you. The course is created to fit in with your life. Requirements for completion: 4 Assessments, Essay and Evaluation.
  • Where This Program Focuses: In addition to comprehensive end-of-life doula training and certification, we include a strong personal (historical/emotional/spiritual) journey component and Pre-Hospice Advocacy specialization. This is worked into the training material.

    “If I had only had this training before my wife died 2 years ago, it would have been so much different for my daughter and I.” ~Stephen J.
  • Exploring and Laying Out Your Vision. You’ll create a clear, sustainable way to offer your work, using our CareDoula PRO Framework. The Framework will help you build something tat fits your life and supports you over time (if this is what you want to do). Not everyone wants to build a professional service, but everyone should have a structure to how they are serving (anyone anywhere). This includes how to move through real situations, make decisions without a script, and build something you can actually maintain.

    “All of this was swarming in my head with no where to land that I could trust. She gave me a direct pathway to creating exactly what I wanted. ~Rose R.
  • Access to Years of Mentoring Sessions. This is pure gold. Listen to doulas before you as they asked Deanna personal and professional questions about accompanying the dying, completing their study, developing their practice and actually serving clients.

Why CareDoula® Works

Most people think they need more information or a faster path.
They don’t. They need guidance as they take real steps.

This is not theoretical work.

It involves witnessing grief, navigating uncertainty, and being
present in situations that don’t have clear answers.

You shouldn’t be trying to figure it out alone and through
fragmented bits of learning gathered in free trainings.

You are supported through our Step by Step Timeline to keep you on
track and although there is no coaching with this program, if you have
any practical questions about completing the program, you can always
email the CareDoula Team and we’ll help you. We respond to training
questions within 3 business days, often much sooner.

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

Certified CareDoula®
Independent Study

What You Will Receive:

Comprehensive end-of-life doula education.
One private session with Deanna.
Certification upon completion of requirements.

Investment

$1497
Enrollment is limited.
If you are able to enroll below, we are open to receive new students.
If there is a waiting list, please give us your name and we’ll reach
out when we have our next opening.

If This Feels Right

There’s no need to overthink this.

You’ve seen what this work involves.
You know whether you feel called to step into it in a real way.

Let’s Go!

Enroll in Certified CareDoula Independent Study Here

Refund Terms: Review the program for 7 full days and if for any reason you would like to withdraw (before your orientation call with Deanna), just let us know. We will refund your entire investment minus $100 administrative fee.

A Word About Waiting

At a certain point, more thinking doesn’t create clarity, it keeps you stuck in the racket of ‘confusion.’

People often tell me later that their ‘need to wait’ really had to do with fear. It looked like:

“I need to figure out xyz first…”
“I have to wait until things settle down…”
“Once I take care of [fill in a name] I’ll be able to focus on myself…”

It’s not that waiting is wrong or the reasons are wrong. It’s just if it’s about fear, not really about the reasons, waiting will only keep you from doing something you really want to do.

We are so used to putting others before ourselves.

And FOR SURE, this world is insane right now, more than ever. And it’s not likely to change soon. We all need to decide how to move forward anyway with what is important to us.

And chances are you are no spring chicken and you know that stepping into something as meaningful as this almost always comes with resistance.

You don’t need to have everything figured out.
You just need to decide if you’re going to move forward. I’ll make sure you get what you need.

At a certain point, you
stop thinking about it
and step in. No matter what.

Enroll in Certified CareDoula Independent Study Here

Frequently Asked Questions

The actual course curriculum portion is created for completion within 16 weeks. The program is self-paced, so you can fit it into your schedule. Some complete the curriculum in 2-3 months, but most people enjoy it so much they end up taking their time and finish in 4-6 months, sometimes a year or more. Let Deanna know what you need.

Most people report they spend about 2 – 4 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. Take it step by step. The most important thing is you are well trained and know what you are doing.

You will not get lost with us. Not only do you have Deanna guiding you in weekly sessions, we created a step by step timeline for you so you know exactly what to do at all times.

No, prior experience in the medical field is NOT necessary. This is a non-medical role. Hospice is the medical healthcare provider. We simply are additional support for the family (we also help hospices too). We provide the tools and training you need to succeed in this non-medical role.

There are so many ways this role can support a person and family. And each person will develop their path based on their own unique skillset. 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. We need everyone, with every kind of background. There are people out there that will only be able to hear YOUR voice. We each have our own way of being, our own circles of community. That’s why it doesn’t matter who you are. You will affect and be able to help the circles you are in.

The most important thing is we all share 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, at Certified CareDoula® our differences are celebrated.

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!

You will always have our CareDoula® Peer Space for 24/7 access for connection, support and to contribute inside our community with other CareDoulas. We have an annual alumni gathering–our Anam Cara Gathering every summer (online), and we have local gatherings throughout the year, as Deanna travels. We love to connect!

You may want to stay in the work inside our End-of-Life Practitioners Collective.

She also provides several low cost workshops for the CareDoula® community, as well as bonus special classes just for certification students/alumni (at no additional charge).

And you may continue to work with her privately.

You have 7 days to ensure you want to remain in Certified CareDoula. If for any reason you want to stop your study, just let us know and you will receive a full refund minus $300 administrative fee.