End of Life Counseling
End-of-life counseling is a space to approach our finality with clarity, ease, and care.
The goal of this work isn’t to get to a place of wanting to die. In fact, working closely with death tends to show us that life is, for lack of a better word, really cool. Cool in the cold ice cream, open blue skies, learning something new, and loving differently every day kind of way. Death may be remarkable in a dark and mysterious sense, but its simplicity of finality is not something to strive toward in comparison to the infinitely interactive complexity of being alive.
The goal of this work is to navigate the inevitability of death through a framework that supports psychological resolution and embodied peace at the end of life. American culture often holds skewed relationships with death, swinging between abject horror and immature glorification or shallow forms of acceptance. These distorted understandings breed unskillful behaviors around death, including the overmedicalization of the dying process. As a result, many people facing their own deaths are left without grounded support for the experience.
We’ve lost much of the art of dying well. This work is a practice in reclaiming it.
This Work Is:
Human-centered, not pathology-centered
We are not trying to diagnose or correct. We are supporting a natural process that benefits from clarity, presence, and relational care.
Structured, but not rigid
While this work is not clinical in the traditional sense, it is not random. It is grounded in well-established psychological, relational, and mindfulness-based frameworks that support orientation, meaning-making, and emotional regulation.
Non-dogmatic
Many people describe end-of-life work as “spiritual.” While this work does engage non-material aspects of experience—meaning, identity, connection—it is not tied to any specific religious or spiritual belief system.
Clients are supported within their own framework of understanding.
Who This Work Is For
This service is appropriate for:
Individuals facing a life-limiting illness
Individuals beginning to think about mortality more directly
Families navigating the emotional and relational complexity of a loved one’s decline
People who feel unprepared, overwhelmed, or disconnected from the reality of this process
Work can be done with the individual, the family system, or both.
How This Work Looks Practically
Sessions are flexible and adapted to the situation. This may include:
One-on-one support for the individual
Family sessions to support communication and relational clarity
Guidance around emotional processing and meaning-making
Support in tolerating uncertainty, fear, or anticipatory grief
Creating space for honest, grounded conversation
Services may be offered:
Virtually
In-home (as appropriate and feasible)
In coordination with existing medical or hospice care
Current end-of-life counseling sessions are offered at $120 per hour, with a sliding scale available as part of my commitment to making this work more financially accessible. Please feel welcome to reach out directly to discuss fit and availability.
Next Steps:
If you are interested in exploring end-of-life counseling services, please complete the contact form linked below through my SimplePractice portal.
In the open-ended question on the form (“Is there anything else you would like the counselor to know?”), please make note that you are specifically seeking end-of-life counseling services. This helps me better understand the nature of the inquiry and respond appropriately.