Certificate in Thanatology
with The Art of Dying Institute at One Spirit
The Certificate in Thanatology program is a place to explore the leading edge of conscious living and conscious dying practices.
This 5-month online course features renowned teachers—providing both depth and breadth in course content—as well as integration sessions and small groups to form a learning community that connects people from all over the world.
THE NEXT COHORT BEGINS IN SPRING 2025.
Registration coming soon!
“The wealth of information provided was incredible, but the relationships built and nurtured over this period is what I truly will never forget. I laughed, I cried, and I found my home - my safe haven - my family amongst all of you.”
Program Snapshot
Program Length: 5 months
Format: Online
Start of Classes: Spring 2025
Tuition Levels: Fair Share Tuition
A message from Jan Booth, MA, RN, NC-BC,
facilitator and teacher for The Art of Dying program.
One Spirit is proud to host the Art Of Dying Institute. With personalized instruction, students will be supported throughout the program by our faculty and staff to not only deepen and expand their personal understanding of death and dying but also to forge connections and create networks to help them professionally. It provides healthcare practitioners, and those with a profound interest in the energetics of living and dying, with a unique set of skills to deepen their understanding of the spiritual, psychological, social and physical aspects of the dying experience.
Successful graduates of this 5-month program will have satisfied the contact hour requirement toward a Certificate or Fellowship in Thanatology issued by The Association of Death Education and Counseling® (ADEC).
What is Integrative Thanatology?
Integrative Thanatology is a systemic study and approach to death and the losses brought about as a result of it. It addresses the complex and sensitive social, psychological, and spiritual aspects related to death and dying. Practitioners in this field develop expertise on the subject of dying, death, loss, and grief, and utilize this insight to support and companion those who have experienced bereavement and great loss.
“This was an incredible experience from start to finish. I loved the range of classes offered, and how for many of them we were able to break into small groups to get to know each other better. I thought the Integration sessions were wonderful, as it gave an opportunity for feedback and processing. This was a life-changing experience for me and I will never forget it.”
What will you learn?
How to work more compassionately and intelligently with the dying
Tools for caregiving and caregivers
Alternative ways to understand life and death
To return sacredness to the dying process
How to promote wise relationships in accompanying the dying
Tools and techniques of the End of Life Doula
Psycho-Spiritual transformation in death and dying
The effects of compassionate presence at the end of life
End of Life Planning
Cross cultural rituals of grief and loss
Skills in death, dying, loss and bereavement
Who is this program for?
This certificate program is appropriate for anyone with a sincere interest in this profound topic. It will be of particular benefit to:
Ministers, Spiritual Companions, and Spiritual Counselors: Go deeper in your exploration of being of service in the world.
Grief Counselors: Help your work of supporting and integrating your client’s feelings of loss.
Hospice Workers: Expand your compassion care for people who are in the last stages of their life.
Nurses, Caretakers, and Palliative Care Workers: optimize the quality of life of your patients and mitigate their suffering.
Death Doulas: Broaden your perspective of rituals and add additional tools to your practice.
Therapists and Bereavement Counselors: Navigate your client's complex and painful emotions and reduce their distress.
Thanatology Certificate Modules
Unable to join the modules live? No problem!
All modules are recorded and you will have until February 2026 to complete the course and earn your Certificate in Thanatology.
Spring 2025 course modules are coming soon. Please see a sample of modules offered below.
Friday, October 18, 2024
7:00 – 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF DYING
Facilitated by: Jan Booth, MA, RN, NC-BC
The focus of this introductory workshop is to begin to create a safe space where meaningful interaction with the death-positive movement can unfold. Students are introduced to thanatology as the study of death and dying and to their classmates for the next five months. We will explore our motivations for crossing the threshold to participate with the Art of Dying Institute. Students will become familiar with the Integrative Thanatology program syllabus and requirements for the certificate. Special attention will be given to the importance of individual plans for self-care and support through the months of this transformative program.
Jan Booth, MA, RN, NC-BC, has worked as a nurse for over 37 years within the intersection of quality of life and end of life, and she is deeply curious about what creates and sustains wellbeing throughout the human experience. Her work trajectory has taken her from years at the bedside of hospice and palliative care patients to supporting the wellbeing of caregivers, and now into the larger community to further open our cultural conversation about end of life. Her current work is primarily as an end-of-life nurse, coach, and educator. She serves as faculty for the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy, the Conscious Dying Collective, and the Art of Dying Institute’s Integrative Thanatology certificate program; and presents a wide variety of workshops on the transformative possibilities of end-of-life care. Additionally, Jan is the author of Re-Imagining the End-of-Life: Self-Development & Reflective Practices for Nurse Coaches, and one of the co-authors of Bold Spirit Caring for the Dying.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 2: THE INNER PATH OF DYING
Facilitated by: Jan Booth, MA, RN, NC-BC
What if we re-imagined the end of life as a vital and purposeful stage of being fully human? In a death-phobic culture, practices that wake us up to our mortality are countercultural and radical acts. How do we learn and practice this particular path of awakening? To imagine new possibilities, we benefit from drawing out of a different well of thinking and experience–perhaps a different kind of knowing. Contemplative and mythic traditions teach the necessity of an inner path of dying—so that we can be more fully present with our own and others’ grief, losses, and death. This session draws from experiential practices, cultural tipping points, story-telling, music, and focused reflection to explore the mystery and meaning in dying–and how it transforms how we live.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 3: MAPPING THE JOURNEY: RE-ENVISIONING DECISIONS ABOUT THE END OF LIFE
Facilitated by: Leslie Blackhall, MD
End of life is a developmental stage, which is experienced by all patients and requires a unique set of skills by their caregivers. However, those studying nursing, medicine, and other allied professions are usually not taught how their patients die. The absence of this education leads to misunderstanding about the nature and goals of medical care, inability to communicate, and increased suffering for clinicians, patients, and families.
Additionally, our healthcare institutions are designed to care for patients with acute episodic illnesses and are geared toward their recovery. However, many patients have chronic progressive life-limiting illnesses and will not recover. In this workshop, we will discuss how our education and institutional systems fail in the care of patients at the end of life and explore ways we can improve and transform them.
Leslie Blackhall, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Humanities at the University of Virginia Medical Center and Director of its Palliative Care Services. She also earned a master’s in theology, at Harvard Divinity School, with a concentration in biomedical ethics, history, and philosophy.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 4: DEEP LISTENING AND PERSONAL REACTIVITY
Facilitated by: Iya. Rev. DeShannon Barnes-Bowens, MS & Rev. Eileen Fisher
One of the most profound gifts we can offer each other in spiritual care is to create spaces where people feel fully heard. Thich Nhat Hahn said, “Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person.” Listening is a sacred act that when done well, supports us in feeling valued and accepted. Personal reactivity can show up as a barrier to deep listening and impedes our ability to be present in our service to others. In this interactive session we will: 1) define components of deep listening 2) learn how activation happens and its impact on our bodies 3) develop skills to work with our activation 4) discover tools to listen more deeply.
Iya Rev. DeShannon Barnes-Bowens, MS is the founder of ILERA Counseling & Education Services, where she works as a psychotherapist, professional development trainer, and spiritual counselor. Through ILERA, she offers national & international workshops and programs focusing on sexuality and spirituality, sexual abuse and healing, and vicarious trauma and wellness. She is the author of Hush Hush: An African American Family Breaks their Silence on Sexuality and Sexual Abuse (2007, 2015). Iya DeShannon has practiced Ifa-Orisa spirituality since 2001 and is an initiated priestess. She was ordained as an Interfaith Minister through One Spirit’s seminary in 2010 and served as a first-year dean, Assistant Director, and Co-Director of the program. Find out more about Iya DeShannon and her work at ilera.com
Rev. Eileen Fisher is an ordained minister, an initiated Sufi dervish and the former Co-Director of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. She holds a master’s degree in education and has experience developing educational programs while working with young children, families and adult learners. As a Middle School teacher, she developed and implemented a school-wide Mindfulness program for students. When she can, Eileen volunteers both locally and abroad.
Monday, November 4, 2024
7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 5: END OF LIFE EXISTENTIAL DISTRESS AND PSYCHEDELIC MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE AS AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT
Facilitated by: Anthony Bossis, Ph.D
During this webinar, we will present the findings from the 2016 landmark NYU School of Medicine clinical trial on psychedelic research aimed at relieving the psychological and existential suffering associated with a life-threatening illness or the end of life. The trial demonstrated the efficacy of a single psilocybin-generated mystical experience in helping individuals with cancer cultivate meaning, enhance existential and psycho-spiritual well-being, and foster a greater acceptance of the dying process with less anxiety.
The scientific findings of reduction in depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and demoralization will be presented along with implications for the future of palliative and hospice care, and the study of thanatology and consciousness. Psilocybin is a psychoactive compound found in specific species of mushrooms.
Features of a mystical experience include unity, sacredness, transcendence, ineffability, and an enhanced awareness of positive emotions, including that of love. Mystical experiences offer a novel therapeutic approach to promote an openness to the mystery of death and to a deeper understanding for the study of meaning and spirituality.
Anthony P. Bossis, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, an Adjunct Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, and an Investigator at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at UCLA. Since 2006, he has conducted FDA-approved clinical research with the psychedelic compound psilocybin. His primary psychedelic research interests are the treatment of end-of-life existential distress and to advance our understanding of consciousness, meaning, and spirituality. Dr. Bossis was director of palliative care research and co-principal investigator on the landmark 2016 clinical trial demonstrating a significant reduction in emotional distress from a single psilocybin session in persons with cancer, specifically, a rapid decrease in depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and demoralization along with improvements in spiritual well-being and quality of life. He is the study director and lead therapist on an FDA-approved clinical trial investigating a psilocybin-generated mystical experience upon religious leaders. Dr. Bossis is a training supervisor of psychotherapy at NYU-Bellevue Hospital Center and co-founder and former co- director of the Bellevue Hospital Palliative Care Service. He is a faculty member at The Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and a guest editor for the journal’s Special Series on Psychedelics. Dr. Bossis has a long-standing interest in comparative religion, mystical experience, and the interface of psychology and spirituality. He maintains a private psychotherapy and consulting practice in NYC.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 6: EXPLORING THE GRIEF JOURNEY: CULTURAL, FAMILIAL, AND PERSONAL DIMENSIONS
Facilitated by: Rabbi Simcha Raphael, Ph.D
Today, there is a burgeoning transformation of cultural attitudes to death and a plethora of theories, methods, and practices that guide our work with the dying and bereaved. However, regardless of one’s approach or perspective, there is a growing recognition among spiritual caregivers and helping professionals that one is more adequately prepared for companioning the dying and bereaved by investigating our own personal reactions and responses to death and dying. Especially in this time of pandemic crisis and its aftermath of grief residue, there are high levels of stress affecting caregivers: being able to wrestle with one’s own personal losses and with the grief one encounters doing this work leaves an individual less susceptible to “compassion fatigue” and more open to caring for others.
With this in mind, this experientially-oriented workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to explore their personal grief journey, as well as how both families of origin and the surrounding culture impact our attitudes towards grief and loss. In the final analysis, we shall look at death as a teacher that gives one the opportunity for psychological and spiritual development.
Rabbi Simcha Raphael, Ph.D. is Founding Director of the DA’AT Institute for Death Awareness, Advocacy and Training. He has served as Adjunct Professor in Religion at LaSalle University and Temple University, and in the Aleph Ordination Program, and has been a faculty member of the Art of Dying program since the first Open Center conference in 1995. He currently works as a transpersonal psychotherapist and spiritual director in the Philadelphia area. Ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as a Pastoral Rabbi, Simcha is a member of the Rabbis Without Borders Network. He has authored seven books on death and afterlife including the groundbreaking book Jewish Views of the Afterlife, and the recently published, Musings with the Angel of Death: Poems of Love, Life and Longing. His website is www.daatinstitute.net.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 7: LANDSCAPES OF DEATH AND DYING: REIMAGINING COSMOVISIONS
Facilitated by: Wilka Roig, MA, MFA
This workshop is a journey through time and place, to cultivate greater cross-cultural awareness and sensibility in the realms of dying, death, and life after death, and to reframe limited points of view through more expansive and inclusive perspectives. During the day we will meet other viewpoints, explore different ideas about death and the grieving process, connect with our own inner knowing and imaginal cosmovision, and generate new visions and innovative approaches in the work of companioning and end of life.
We will focus on:
transcending scripts, labels, myths
honoring origins
remembering our nature
evolving beyond ethnocentrism and insularity
Teaching dynamics include lectures, practices, conversations, experiential exercises, breakout group work, and self-reflection exercises.
Wilka Roig MA, MFA is a transpersonal psychologist, death doula, grief counselor, dream worker, ordained minister, educator, facilitator, writer, Taoist Arts instructor, musician, photographer, performance artist, silversmith, baker, mythmaker. She is the founder and president of Fundación Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (EKR) México Centro, deputy director of education of EKR Foundation Global, end- of-life doula educator and BIPOC/International advisor of the International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA), co-founder of Red Iberoamericana de Acompañamiento en la muerte y el duelo. Her interests include the neurobiology of trauma, loss, grief, and relationships, conscious living & dying, birds, stars, confectionery arts, and wine culture.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 8: TRAUMA, LOSS, AND YOUTH
Facilitated by: Tashel Bordere, Ph.D., CT
Children, teens, and young adults are among society’s most forgotten mourners. Yet, the trauma and loss experiences of youth and young adults may be especially complex as they simultaneously grapple with developmental changes and milestones, school expectations, extra-curricular activities, and peer relationships in the syndemic (post-Covid-19 pandemic).
This workshop addresses patterns of trauma and loss, including the connections between trauma and death and non-death losses, among youth and young adults. We will examine various cultural and contextual factors and issues (violence, sexual assault, climate issues) related to systemic inequities that have produced suffocated grief and disrupted patterns of mourning and coping. Trauma and grief informed theories ground in socially just practices and research with youth will be presented as we explore ways to support youth.
Tashel C. Bordere, Ph.D., CT is an internationally-known scholar, author, and speaker, and a grant-funded researcher at the Center for Family Policy and Research at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is certified in Thanatology. Dr. Bordere is President of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG) and board member for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). She completed a Forward Promise Fellowship through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) focused on healing among Black male youth. She is a mentor and career coach to Health Equity Scholars through Johns Hopkins (RWJF). Dr. Bordere’s research focuses on cultural trauma, stigmatized loss (gun violence), suffocated grief (a term she coined), and Black youth and family grief and death rituals. She has received numerous awards including the Dr. Ronald K. Barrett Award (ADEC), Excellence in Engagement in Outreach (MU), and the Outstanding Faculty Mentorship to underrepresented students award (MU). Dr. Bordere has done workshops, keynotes, and published research on inequities in loss and culturally resonant practices, including her co-edited book, Handbook of Social Justice in Loss and Grief (Routledge). She is a grief health advisor on films and has been featured in national/international media.
Sunday, December 15, 2024
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 9: CULTIVATING THE DOULA HEART
Facilitated by: Francesca Arnoldy
Doulas step into the most intense, vulnerable thresholds of life to hold a hand, wipe a tear and honor all that is meaningful. Deepen your understanding of doula essentials of care, and feel invited to move from sympathy or empathy toward compassion to avoid energy depletion.
Learn useful, practical approaches and techniques that will enable you to support people more confidently through times of intensity, including birth, death, and grief.
During this 6-hour interactive workshop, we will cover:
Tenets of Doula Support
Components of Compassion
Liminal Space
Being “Enough”
The “Ins” of Holding Space
Personalizing with Plans
Tools of the Trade
Francesca Lynn Arnoldy is a community doula and death literacy advocate. She is the author of Cultivating the Doula Heart (a guidebook), Map of Memory Lane (a picture book), and The Death Doula’s Guide to Living Fully and Dying Prepared (an interactive workbook). Francesca is a researcher with the Vermont Conversation Lab and she was the original course developer of the University of Vermont & End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Programs. She regularly presents on life-and-death topics with the hopes of encouraging people to support one another through times of intensity. You can find her contemplating birth, death, and life with the doula heart at francescalynnarnoldy.com.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 10: ANCESTRAL GRIEF
Facilitated by: Michelle Darling
In the Wild Edge of Sorrow, the fifth gate is Ancestral Grief. Weller says, "This is the grief we carry in our bodies from sorrows experienced by our ancestors. ... This sorrow becomes concentrated over time, gathering grief unto itself, and is carried in our psyches unconsciously." Who are the Ancestors? How do we relate to them? How might we move from internalized collapse to an empowered presence where both gratitude and grief are accessible? Our session will explore these questions in an experiential session, allowing you to step into this gate between ordinary and non-ordinary reality. Our time will include varying perspectives, from genealogical to Indigenous, emphasizing your direct experience of ancestry through deep listening within. You are invited to bring three objects that relate you to your ancestors, a journal or several pieces of paper, and colored pencils/markers if available. Cultivating an awareness of this terrain using writing prompts, movement, and creative reflection, you will leave this time with a map and tools to navigate this gate
Michelle Darling is a BIPOC ritualist who supports people in keeping their grief warm. In 2005, she was initiated as a deathwalker, companioning her husband through his cancer journey. Following his death, she began her apprenticeship with sorrow, stepping into relationship with non-ordinary reality as an energy worker and shamanic practitioner. She is a Reiki Master Teacher, Yoga Nidra Teacher, Grief Educator, and Death Literacy Specialist. Her heart's work is in service to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. She is a weaver of sound, words, space, and time. As a companion and guide, she leans into the other-than-human realm, celebrating the gift of deep listening (within and without). Learn more at: https://www.shamansvoice.me/
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 11: MUSIC AS MEDICINE AT THE END OF LIFE
Facilitated by: Catharine Delong
Music at the bedside brings beauty, intimacy, and comfort to end-of-life patients. It invites listeners to be present to what is going on both inside and around them.
Catharine DeLong’s workshop offers the most effective uses of live vocal, instrumental, and recorded music for palliative individuals and their loved ones. She brings her experience as a freelance harpist, certified music-thanatologist, contemplative musician, and end-of-life educator to support patients and families and help them encounter the dying process as a natural passage.
Catharine Delong is a certified music thanatologist, hospice chaplain, and end-of-life educator based in Salt Lake City. With harp and voice she tends to the emotional, physical and spiritual needs at the bedside of palliative patients and their loved ones. Catharine is a graduate of the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Her 2021 video performance at the edge of the Great Salt Lake brings awareness to climate thanatology.
Saturday, January 18, 2025
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 12: AFTER-DEATH CARE AND HOME FUNERALS
Facilitated by: Rev. Olivia Bareham
This workshop demonstrates the role of the death midwife from the final breath through the 3-day home vigil and funeral until final disposition. Open to professional and non-professional end-of-life caregivers and anyone wishing to care for their loved one naturally, at home, according to personal, religious, and cultural traditions.
Topics covered will include:
Legalities & logistics of a 1 to 3-day home vigil
The death midwife kit
Care of the body (bathing, dressing, anointing)
Laying the body in-honor
Dry-ice preservation
Stillbirth/Infant death – bringing baby home
Films, meditations, written exercises, and demonstrations support the information being shared.
Rev. Olivia Bareham is a certified Death Midwife, Home Funeral Guide and Celebrant. She holds degrees in Education and Natural Theology and Sacred Healing, and is the founder of the Sacred Crossings Institute and Sacred Crossings Alternative Funeral Home in Los Angeles. Olivia has over 18 years’ experience as a death midwife, guiding hundreds of families in the art of conscious dying and home- based after-death care. Olivia facilitates certificate training programs for Death Doulas and Death Midwives and manages her funeral home to support families seeking green and conscious alternatives to conventional funeral industry practices. Services include home funerals, green burials, and full-body deep sea burials. Please visit sacredcrossings.com for more information.
MODULE 13: TRANSITION BY DESIGN: PLANNING AN INSPIRED & INTENTIONAL FUNERAL
Facilitated by: Amy Cunningham
Planning for your own death, and getting acquainted with what is both traditional and newly possible in today’s end-of-life rituals is a spiritual practice that enables you to face your own mortality with serenity and courage. Sadly, people who postpone funeral planning discussions leave their families with trying decisions and commitments involving thousands of dollars. And as Americans have intermarried and paved their own spiritual trail, the role of traditional religious leadership has also diminished. So how can families organize their thoughts and plan rituals that grant greater solace, healing, and empowerment?
Join funeral director Amy Cunningham in a day-long workshop about changes within American end-of-life experiences. We’ll learn how to plan an earth-friendly green burial with hands-on involvement, a more meaningful cremation, a memorial event with music and eulogies, a funeral in a residence, and an uplifting ash-scattering or settling service. We’ll also discuss new ways to honor and remember our loved ones involving altars, music, flowers, dance and meditation. A farewell to a family member today entails a sequence of healing experiences instead of one formal gathering. We’ll review our own memories of funerals past and get the latest facts on natural organic reduction (NOR), earth-friendly burial, cremation pros and cons, biodegradable casket decorating, blended-faith/alternative ceremonies and more.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
Amy Cunningham was a magazine writer until 2009 when her elderly father’s memorial service ignited a passion for helping folks plan more meaningful end-of-life events. When she’s not directing funerals for her firm Fitting Tribute Funeral Services, she writes a funeral planning blog called TheInspiredFuneral.com. She believes that a good funeral can send everyone in attendance out the door with an altered view of what life’s all about, and the beginnings of a plan for moving forward.
MODULE 14: AFRICAN AMERICAN DEATHWAYS
Facilitated by: Kami Fletcher, Ph.D.
Being Black in America has meant a continuous fight for freedom and humanity. Unfortunately, this fight and assertion of humanity does not stop with death. In this workshop we will explore how white supremacy has sought to imprint upon death and dying by exploring the unnatural and disconcerting ways in which African Americans have died. In the same vein, we will examine the ways in which burial grounds and mourning patterns have particularly served as important vehicles for challenging postmortem racism and autonomous identity formation. Ultimately students will learn how African American deathways and death care have served as important spaces for collective memory and mainstays of self-preservation.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 – 5:30 pm EST
Dr. Kami Fletcher, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of American & African American History and Co-Coordinator of Women’s and Gender Studies at Albright College. She teaches courses that explores the African experience in America and unpacks social and cultural U.S. history at the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. She serves as the Humanities Advisor for the PA Hallowed Ground Project and the past Historical Consultant for Mount Harmon Plantation (2017-2018) and John Dickinson Plantation (2021-2023). In 2018, she co-founded CRDS and since 2019 has served as President. Her research centers on African American burial grounds, late 19 th /early 20 th century Black female and male undertakers, and contemporary Black grief and mourning. She is the co-editor of Grave History: Death, Race and Gender in Southern Cemeteries (University of Georgia Press, December 2023) and Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed (University Press of Mississippi, 2020). She has also authored articles and essays, which include the following: “Black Women Undertakers of the Early Twentieth Century Were Hidden in Plain Sight” and “Are Enslaved African Americans Buried at Mount Harmon Plantation? Space and Reflection for National Mourning and Memorializing”. Currently, Dr. Fletcher is working on the “Culture Keeper’s” Oral History Project funded by the National Science Foundation in collaboration with George Washington University. The project asks African American funeral service works, the nation’s culture keepers, how rituals have been recreated, disrupted, reconceptualized, abandoned and sustained during the pandemic. For more on Dr. Fletcher visit her website: www.kamifletcher.com and/or contact her on Twitter using @kamifletcher36.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm ET
MODULE 15: HOW TO HELP AFTER A SUICIDE DEATH
Facilitated by: Karen Wyatt, MD
While less than 2% of all deaths in the U.S. occur by suicide, the aftermath of such a death is traumatic and overwhelming to the survivors, who need special support as they cope with shock and grief. The intent of this program is to raise awareness about suicide, break down the stigma that surrounds it, and prepare participants to support those impacted by suicide.
In this webinar we will cover the challenges faced by survivors of suicide death; what to do after a suicide death; as well as tips and tools for supporting a survivor of suicide death.
Dr. Karen Wyatt, MD is a retired hospice physician and the author of the award-winning book 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying. She hosts the popular podcast End-of-Life University and is widely regarded as a thought leader in the effort to transform the way we care for the dying in the U.S. Learn more at her website: https://eoluniversity.com
Saturday, February 8, 2025
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET
MODULE 16: THE DYING CHILD: END OF LIFE ISSUES IN PEDIATRICS
Facilitated by: Kat Kowalski, MDIV, BCC, Emily Johnson MSN, CRNP & Cora Gallagher CCLS, MA
More than 40,000 children in the U.S. die every year from trauma, lethal conditions, heritable disorders, acquired illnesses, and prematurity. Pediatric palliative care is a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to care that, in the face of complex and life-threatening diagnoses, strives to enrich a child’s quality of life through relief of pain and other symptoms while also addressing the child’s and family’s social, psychological, and spiritual needs. In this session, the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Palliative Care Team members will share their experience and expertise working with pediatric patients and their families. Students will gain a sense of life and death in an ICU and how the palliative care team works to ensure that even the briefest lives are infused with sacredness and dignity. Topics covered will include perinatal palliative care, the role of parents as decision-makers, the inclusion of children and teens in a death (their own/siblings’), memory-making, and more.
Topics covered will include:
Educate students about pediatric and perinatal palliative care
Expand students’ understanding of how pediatric and perinatal palliative care are applied in
various settings through real-world examples and case studies
Provide students practical information about meaningful memory-making activities, palliative
birth plans, communicating with children and teens about death, parent and sibling support,
bereavement and more
Rev. Kat Kowalski, MDiv, BCC, is the Perinatal Palliative Care and Chaplaincy Coordinator at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She often works with parents who have received a worrisome prenatal diagnosis, and has ministered to countless families experiencing the serious illness and/or death of a baby.
Emily Johnson, MSN, CRNP, is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner who provides palliative care in Johns Hopkins’ Pediatric ICU. With extensive experience in pediatric critical care nursing, she has cared for hundreds of dying children. In addition to advanced degrees in nursing, Emily holds certificates in nurse education and pediatric bioethics.
Cora Gallagher, CCLS, MA, is the Program Manager of Pediatric Palliative Care at Johns Hopkins. She provides psycho-social support to patients and families as well as follow-up bereavement care. She has degrees in Child Life, Literature and Pastoral Care, and special interest in adolescents and informed decision-making at all stages of development.
MODULE 17: SOMATIC PRINCIPLES OF LIVING AND DYING: SEEING DEATH AS PART OF VITALITY AND THE MOVING ARC OF LIFE
Facilitated by: Jeanne Denney
Death matters to every moment of human life and to our psychological health. Death is “somatic” or body-centered in its core. Dying is a deeply energetic, emotional, spiritual, and physical process in which consciousness and the body change together over time. Yet this important process is not covered in somatic theories, and we often do not include the unity of mind and body in end-of-life work.
During this day, we will study how energy, consciousness and the body change over the entire human life, with special attention to the energetics of the dying process itself. What we find teaches us about human life in every moment. We will consider how somatic theories might help us be more present in life, in service, and in vitality.
To help you recognize these principles, I will offer several experiences that will help you embody "Whole Life"” This day will support you in finding vitality within your own mind/body and help you understand why turning toward death supports Life and sanity.
Sunday, February 9, 2025
10:00 am – 12:30 pm &
2:00 – 5:30 pm ET
Jeanne Denney, M.A. is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, hospice worker, founder of the School of Unusual Life Learning (SoULL) and author of The Effects of Compassionate Presence on the Dying. She has worked in many roles to help people fearlessly embrace a life which includes aging, dying and nature. This has involved years at bedsides, study and research, in contributing pioneering ideas to somatic psychology, in death and grief work, teaching, mothering, and facilitation of the Art of Dying projects in New York City. Her unique insights on energy and the body through aging, illness, and dying have been derived from this wide lens of human experience and a deep understanding of our mortal journey.
Saturday and Sunday, February 15-16, 2025
10:00 - 5:00 pm ET
STUDENT CAPSTONE WEEKEND
The presentation of capstone projects has evolved to be a sacred witnessing experience at the conclusion of our course. Each student presents an eight-minute project representing a personal, meaningful expression pertaining to some aspect of the end of life. Creativity is encouraged. Projects vary widely and reflect the uniqueness of each member of the class.
Mondays
7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
INTEGRATION SESSIONS
Once a month, students can meet with the course facilitator, course coordinator, and their classmates to integrate the material from the preceding month. These sessions are an opportunity to check in/react to the material, connect with classmates, and brainstorm final capstone project ideas. They will involve both group discussion and breakout rooms/small groups.
10/28/24
11/25/24
12/30/24
1/27/25
2/18/25 (Note: Session to be held on Tuesday due to Presidents Day on 2/17)
Choose your own tuition based on your desire for positive change and your financial situation. There’s no application for financial aid and no proof of income; just you in a discernment process with yourself about the value of your education in the context of your financial well-being. The pricing options in our Fair Share Tuition model ensure that people from all backgrounds can afford our world-class education while ensuring the most diverse class possible.
Program Cost
Choose Your Own Fair Share Tuition
Sponsorship Levels:
Students whose circumstances allow their Fair Share to be above Full Cost will now ensure an economically diverse cohort with a tax-deductible contribution over the full tuition amount. Every dollar below full cost is offset by students paying higher levels and our generous graduates.
$4,495
$3,995
$3,495
Full Cost of the Program
$2,995
Subsidized levels:
These subsidized levels are in the range of what was previously charged to students and represent the most tuition assistance we had offered.
$2,595
$2,295
We reserve 50% of the enrollments at this level for BIPOC students.
$1,950
Join the Interest List and learn more about Thanatology.
Your Certificate in Thanatology with The Art of Dying Institute starts here. Join the Art of Dying interest list so we can notify you when we schedule future program dates, open houses, workshops, and community events.
There is no obligation or commitment, and we look forward to personally connecting with you.
*The Art of Dying Institute:
The Art of Dying Institute is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit located in New York City. The Institute began as a series of conferences and has evolved into a resource for education and community focusing on the spiritual, scientific and practical approaches to end of life care, bereavement, and death. An important goal of the Art of Dying Institute is to find practical ways to return a sense of the sacred to death itself and to explore how awareness of our own mortality influences how we live.