In this information session, host Jameson Dean sits down with Stephen Garrett — interfaith minister, trained death doula, Master’s-level educator, and board member of the End of Life Doula Association of Canada — to answer both questions. Stephen is also one of the founding contributors to Rhodes Wellness College’s End of Life Doula Certificate Program, widely recognized as the most comprehensive end of life doula training in Canada.
🎙️ Host: Jameson Dean
👤 Guest: Stephen Garrett, Instructor & Co-Founder, EOLD Certificate Program
⏱ ~30 minutes
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Meet the Instructor: Stephen Garrett
Stephen Garrett didn’t arrive at end of life work through a tidy career path. He came to it the way most people come to the deepest work of their lives — through living.
An interfaith minister known affectionately as “the irreverent reverend,” Stephen has spent years sitting with people at the edges of life. He has completed multiple death doula training programs, earned a Master’s degree in education and training, and channelled all of it into a singular mission: to improve the state of dying, death, grief, and loss in North America.
He is a board member of the End of Life Doula Association of Canada — working at a national level to elevate the profession and push for provincial insurance coverage of doula services. And he was one of the founding contributors to the End of Life Doula Certificate at Rhodes Wellness College, helping to build a program from the ground up that reflects everything he believes this training should be.
When Stephen teaches, it is not from a textbook. It is from decades of being in the room — with the dying, with the grieving, and with students who are learning to face both.
What Is an End of Life Doula?
An end of life doula — sometimes called a death doula or death midwife — is a trained non-medical professional who provides holistic support to people who are dying and to the people who love them. Where the medical system focuses on clinical care, an end of life doula fills the human gap: the emotional, practical, spiritual, and legacy dimensions of dying that doctors and nurses rarely have time to address.
End of life doulas might help a family arrange a meaningful vigil space in a hospital room. They might sit with someone through the night when family can’t be there. They might guide a family through advance care planning paperwork, or help a dying person record their stories for the people they’ll leave behind.
The role sits at the intersection of deep human connection and practical skill — and it is not one-size-fits-all.
What Does an End of Life Doula Actually Do?
The scope of end of life doula work is broader than most people expect. Stephen shares examples from current and recent Rhodes students that illustrate just how varied — and how creative — this career can be.
Digital estate support
A recent Rhodes graduate recognized a gap no one was addressing: we all have a digital life that dies too. She now specializes as a digital undertaker, helping families navigate the complex tangle of accounts, subscriptions, and online presence left behind after a death — something most families have no idea how to handle.
Space and environment preparation
A student completing her certification next week has a deep sensitivity to physical environment. She works as a space doula — helping families thoughtfully arrange the room where their loved one will spend their final days, whether that’s a hospital room, a hospice suite, or the family home. The goal is simple: for the person dying to feel genuinely comfortable and held in their last surroundings.
Men’s grief support
Two men in the current cohort identified a significant gap in their own community. Many North American men have never been taught how to grieve — the cultural messaging around stoicism and “keeping it together” runs deep. They are building a practice specifically designed to help other men lean into grief, in a way that feels safe and accessible rather than alienating.
“There are many more stories I could share with you — but those are a few.”
— Stephen Garrett
The pattern across all of these is clear: the niche a doula finds often comes directly from their own lived experience, their community, or a gap they’ve noticed that nobody else has thought to fill. The training provides the foundation. The direction is yours to shape.
What Sets Rhodes’ End of Life Doula Program Apart
There are end of life doula training programs across Canada. Here is what makes Rhodes’ certificate different — and why it is recognized as the most comprehensive program in the country.
You do your own grief work first
This is the principle that shapes everything Stephen teaches, and it is what sets serious end of life doula training apart from surface-level programs.
Before a doula can effectively support others through grief and death, they need to reckon honestly with their own. Unprocessed grief doesn’t disappear — it lives in the body. And when a client arrives carrying their loss, an unhealed doula’s own grief will surface, disrupting the very support they’re trying to provide.
“If I’ve got unexpressed grief living in my body that I’ve tucked away, when a client comes in the door, that grief is going to get triggered — and I’m not going to be any help to anybody. End of life doula: do your personal grief work first, and then step into service.”
— Stephen Garrett
Stephen’s portion of the program guides students through a thorough personal inventory of their relationship with death and loss — both death losses and non-death losses. The goal is to identify, surface, and begin working through whatever is unresolved. This is not optional. It is the foundation.
The Seven Languages of Sorrow
Grief doesn’t communicate the same way in every person. Rhodes’ curriculum includes the Seven Languages of Sorrow — a framework for understanding the different ways human beings express and process grief. For a practicing doula, this literacy is essential: being able to recognize and meet grief wherever it shows up in a client or family member is a core clinical skill.
Practical planning tools
Students also work through the All Ready to Go binder — a comprehensive practical resource covering the paperwork, planning, and logistical dimensions of end of life preparation. This is the hands-on toolkit that allows a doula to provide real, tangible guidance to families who are overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
A cohort model, not a classroom
The learning environment at Rhodes is deliberately communal. Stephen is clear: this isn’t a teacher standing at the front while students sit in rows. It’s a village — everyone doing the work together, learning as much from each other as from the curriculum. That model of shared vulnerability and mutual support mirrors exactly the kind of environment a skilled doula creates for their clients.
Industry connections that matter
Stephen is not just an educator — he is a board member of the End of Life Doula Association of Canada. That means students are learning from someone actively shaping the future of the profession at a national level. They get a window into where the industry is heading, what standards are emerging, and what employers and institutions are looking for in a trained doula.
End of Life Doula Career Paths and Income Streams
The final module of Stephen’s teaching is explicitly practical: how do you build a sustainable career doing this work? The answer, he says, is to think in streams rather than a single path.
A working end of life doula in Canada might earn income through any combination of the following:
- Running an independent private practice with a specific niche focus
- Contracting with hospices, hospitals, or palliative care teams
- Working alongside funeral homes as a grief and transition support specialist
- Supporting families in aged care or assisted living settings
- Developing digital products, workshops, or courses around grief and end of life planning
- Eventually: billing through provincial insurance coverage as the profession gains formal recognition
“As a budding entrepreneur in a budding industry, having three, four, or five different avenues you can walk down to earn income is a very clever thing to do. You don’t have to choose all of them — but you don’t have to choose just one.”
— Stephen Garrett
On insurance: Stephen and the End of Life Doula Association of Canada are actively working to have doula services covered under provincial medical services plans. When that shift comes, it will meaningfully expand both the accessibility of end of life support for Canadians and the earning potential for practicing doulas.
Why This Work Matters Right Now
Canada is facing an unprecedented wave of end of life need. Over the next 10 to 15 years, 9.3 million baby boomers will be moving through the final stage of life. The healthcare system alone cannot hold all of what that requires. Skilled, trained, compassionate end of life doulas are not a future need. They are needed now.
Rhodes’ End of Life Doula Certificate has arrived at exactly the right moment — and with a depth of training that positions its graduates to lead the field.
Is the End of Life Doula Certificate right for you?
- You feel called to support people through one of life’s most profound transitions
- You want meaningful work that combines emotional depth with real, practical skill
- You are open to honestly exploring your own relationship with grief and loss
- You want a career path with multiple ways to serve and earn
- You want Canada’s most comprehensive end-of-life doula training behind your name
Ready to Learn More?
Rhodes Wellness College’s End of Life Doula Certificate is the most comprehensive program of its kind in Canada — available online to students across the country. Our admissions team is ready to answer your questions.
Explore the End of Life Doula Certificate
Rhodes Counselling Centre is also available for those seeking counselling support in a pro bono capacity, online for anyone across Canada. Visit rhodescollege.ca
End of Life Doula · Death Doula · EOLD Certificate Canada · End of Life Doula Training · Doula Career · Rhodes Wellness College · Grief Support · Palliative Care · Death Positive · End of Life Planning
Full Session Transcript
The complete transcript is provided below for accessibility and reference. Lightly edited for readability.
Jameson Dean: Hello and good afternoon. We have a special guest today — Stephen Garrett — joining us for a brief information session about the End of Life Doula Certificate Program here at Rhodes Wellness College. Stephen, could you introduce yourself, share a bit of your history, and tell us about your role in the program? And then we’ll hear more about why this work is so important and what potential students could learn from you.
Stephen Garrett: Awesome. My name is Stephen Garrett. I am an interfaith minister — my friends call me the Irreverent Reverend. I’m a trained death doula and have completed many different death doula training programs. I hold a master’s degree in education and training, and I am absolutely dedicated to improving the state of dying, death, grief, and loss here in North America. I’m very inspired to teach what I teach in this program and was something of a founding father of the doula program here at Rhodes Wellness College.
Jameson Dean: Incredible. So what can potential students expect to learn in your portion of the program — and why is that so important to this work?
Stephen Garrett: In my section, alongside the All Ready to Go binder — which covers the paperwork side of this work — and the Seven Languages of Sorrow — which explores how we communicate grief in different ways — students will also get the opportunity to look at their own personal experience with loss, both death losses and non-death losses, and really check in with themselves. Have you got any grief hanging around that you haven’t dealt with yet? We take a thorough personal inventory of our own relationship with death and our own relationship with grief. We do a little mining to see — got some holdovers you’d like to get rid of?
The reason that’s so important is this: if I have unexpressed grief living in my body that I’ve tucked away emotionally, and a client walks through the door, that unexpressed grief is going to get triggered — and I’m not going to be any help to anyone. It’s a bit like the Hippocratic Oath for doctors — physician, heal thyself. For end of life doulas, the equivalent is: do your personal grief work first, then step into service. That’s what students can expect from me. And I’ll guarantee we’ll have some fun along the way too — even talking about grief and loss.
Jameson Dean: So it’s a personal development journey that also allows us to show up professionally — before, during, and after a client’s passing?
Stephen Garrett: One hundred percent correct. The more deeply we can embrace the teachings as end of life doulas, the more credibility we have with our clients. We’ve got to do our own work in this field. And we do it together — it’s not me as the teacher standing apart from the cohort. We are a beautiful village, walking together and doing the work alongside each other.
Jameson Dean: For those wondering what a doula’s career could actually look like in practice — what have you seen graduates do in the field to get hands-on experience and paid work?
Stephen Garrett: Well, just today I received a book from a previous graduate called Your Digital Undertaker. She’s a death doula who recognised that we also have a digital life that dies — and she’s become a specialist in helping families unwind all that digital complexity after a loved one passes, which is really quite complicated for most people to navigate on their own.
Another student completing the program next week is very sensitive to physical surroundings, so she has become a space doula — helping families arrange the environment where their loved one will pass, whether that’s a hospital room, a hospice, or the family home, so that the person dying feels comfortable and truly held in that space, which will be the last space they’re ever in.
And I have a couple of men in the program who are building their practice specifically around reaching out to other men — because many North American men simply don’t know the first thing about grieving and loss. We know how to keep the stiff upper lip. We know how to hold ourselves together. So they’re specialising as doulas who help men lean into their grief. There are many more stories I could share, but those give you a real sense of the range.
Jameson Dean: So a doula can specialise into a niche or preferred area of practice. And from an entrepreneurial standpoint, could run their own independent practice under their own name and domain — offering their services directly to the community — or alternatively be hired by a funeral home, hospice, hospital, or aged care facility?
Stephen Garrett: Correct. And I’d note that you just named multiple streams of income — and as a budding entrepreneur in a budding industry, having three, four, or five different avenues to earn income is a very clever thing to do. That’s exactly what I support people with in the final module — checking out the different avenues available to make income in this field. You don’t have to choose all of them, but you don’t have to choose just one either.
Jameson Dean: And graduates are coming out of what we believe is the most comprehensive end of life doula certificate program in Canada — which should carry real weight with potential employers and organisations in the field.
Stephen Garrett: Absolutely. And one more thing I’ll share: I am a board member of the End of Life Doula Association of Canada, which is working tirelessly to elevate the profession — how meaningful and how important this work truly is. We are actively working to get doulas covered under the medical services plans of different provinces, which would mean clients could potentially have doula services covered by their insurance. So graduates could charge out their services and a client’s insurance coverage could cover all or some of that.
There is a lot going on behind the scenes. I’m very pleased that Rhodes Wellness College is championing this program — it has arrived at exactly the right time, as we face 9.3 million baby boomers heading toward the end of life over the next ten to fifteen years. That is a lot of clients, and a lot of families who will need meaningful support.
Jameson Dean: Thank you so much, Stephen — for your wisdom, your teaching, and everything you bring to this work. For anyone listening, you’ll be hearing from a few of our instructors in this series. Have a lovely day, and be well.
Stephen Garrett: Thank you, Jameson. My pleasure.
