Into the clearing: a phenomenological study of the death doula approach to end of life

Presented at the DC Research Café (January 28, 2021). Changing Canadian attitudes towards death and an over-stretched health care system have precipitated the emergence of the death doula role to fill in gaps of end-of-life care. Despite some traction in Canadian airwaves and social media, the novelty of the death doula role contributes to the challenge in providing a clear description of the role’s scope and significance within the end-of-life care context. Mary-Anne Parker is an End-of-Life Doula program instructor, Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary studies student whose work and learning have evolved into critically examining end of life care in Canada, in particular the evolution and praxis of the Death Doula role. A practicing Death Doula herself, she is involved in advocacy and research which she hopes will establish the ongoing recognition of this novel approach to end of life care. Her research endeavors to answer the question “What do death doulas do?” and is divided into two parts. Lived experiences: Conversations from nine interviews with practicing death doulas were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological psychological method developed by Amadeo Giorgi. Themes were developed from the conversations and were used to describe the breadth and depth of death doula work. A phenomenological framing of the findings: The themes discovered in Part I of the research were framed within the ideas of phenomenologist Martin Heidegger whose thoughts around the concepts of human existence provide a rich foundation from which the role of the death doula can be understood. My research findings suggested the death doula role consists of three complementary yet succinct components. First, a death doula tends to the practical needs of the client; secondly, clients are comforted by a doula’s presence and the distraction it provides; and, thirdly, the end-of-life doula holds space for “the clearing,” a time and space where death is anticipated, and the full spectrum of life is revealed. Keywords: Phenomenology, end of life care, death doula, the clearing