End of Life Doula Training

How to Train as an End of Life Doula

If you are interested in becoming an end of life doula, you can learn about how to train on this page. We only work with training providers who equip doulas with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to support people who are dying, as well as their families and those important to them. Read on to learn about our recognised training programmes.

About Our Recognised Training Programmes

We recommend training with one of our recognised partners - Living Well Dying Well Training or Life’s End Death Doula Training. We work closely with our training partners ensuring that doula practice is always informing and updating training content. Click below to learn more.

  • Living Well Dying Well Training are the pioneers of end of life doula training in the UK, having developed the first training programme in 2010. LWDW’s relationship with EoLDUK is rooted in a shared history and the vision of their Founder, Hermione Elliot, to transform how we approach death and dying. Today, our organisations continue to work closely to support the end of life doula movement in the UK.

    LWDW’s unique training is centred on a person-centred approach, shaping not only what they teach, but how they teach and support learners. Courses are fully facilitated by certified trainers either through live online learning or face to face at venues across the UK.

    LWDW’s Foundation Training is primarily a citizenship course for those wishing to deepen their understanding of death and dying. Topics include: 

    • Understanding the dying phase

    • Understanding the effects of death on those who are caring

    • Engaging in the doula role

    • Choices and requirements at the time of death

    Learners can then progress to the Diploma, deepening and applying their learning through practical experience in real-world settings. Topic covered include:

    • Complementary and creative approaches and the end of life

    • Understanding relationship dynamics at the end of life

    • End of life person-centred practice

    • Personal and professional development in end of life doula practices

    • Practical experience of working in the end of life doula role

    Both courses are certified by The Crossfields Institute (CFI), providing independent recognition of the quality of the training. Find out more on LWDW’s website, or contact them on info@livingwelldyingwell.net 01273 102511.

  • Life’s End - Death Doula Training was established in 2018 under the name of Soul Companions by Jane Depledge, who is herself a registered nurse, lecturer and doula. The recently refreshed name change, courses, additional class dates and extensive topics have ensured currency, wider availability and enabled inclusion to the EoLDUK community. Their courses maintain their welcoming inclusive approach and are designed to be practice-orientated, informative, and engaging.

    Both training courses on offer from Life’s End are certified by the Institute of training and occupational learning (ITOL) and have been mapped to key UK education and national guidance documents that support your practice to the highest standard ensuring robustness and rigor. Additionally, certificated learning, offered by a national company providing mandatory courses to the NHS and private health sector, allows you to exit the course with several relevant certificates helpful for any CV.

    Training covers a variety of themes with a wide range of topics, including:

    • The psychology of death and dying

    • Celebrating life and creating legacy

    • Communication skills - conversations about death and dying

    • Emotional, culturally sensitive, spiritual support

    • Examining your own personal relationship with death

    • Exploring grief, and offering bereavement support

    • Personal resilience, coping strategies as well as business tips and pitfalls

    • Safeguarding the vulnerable

    Training courses are available throughout the year, either in-person in the beautiful Welsh countryside or virtually from the comfort of your own home. If you have any questions, please contact them at Training@DeathDoulaTraining.co.uk where they will be happy to help.

We strongly caution against signing up for short online training courses claiming to fully train end of life doulas which do not include sufficient self-development time, teaching about being a doula within a UK context, or gaining ‘on the ground’ experience.

Course Structure

Both Living Well Dying Well Training and Life’s End’s programmes are split into two parts:

  • Foundation Training – The essential first step towards becoming an end of life doula. Upon completion, participants receive a certificate, which makes them eligible to apply for membership of EoLDUK as an Affiliate or Trainee member.

  • Diploma – For those looking to develop their practice further including gaining experience in the end of life doula role, to ensure you are equipped to provide the best possible support in your community. Upon completion you can apply to become a Registered Member of EoLDUK.

How to Apply for Training and FAQs

We believe that the right training is essential in providing compassionate, safe, effective doula support. If you are interested in becoming an end of life doula, we encourage you to explore the Living Well Dying Well and Life’s End websites for further details on upcoming training courses and booking information.

  • Training courses are available throughout the year and can be taken either in-person or online. LWDW run in-person training at locations across the UK.

  • The need for formal training of end of life doulas is a debated issue in our field internationally, as humans have been providing doula support without a formal label since human communities began.

    Our view is that whilst the ability to accompany and be with people who are dying is something that anyone can do, we have a complex health and social care system in the UK and in order to support and advocate for the people we support well, we need a solid understanding of the system, ourselves, and the practical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of caring for someone who is dying.

    We therefore require all of our members to have completed the foundation end of life doula training as a minimum. This ensures that all our members have a solid grounding in end of life care and the doula ethos.

  • You can apply to LWDW for a bursary if ability to pay is a barrier to you completing the training.

  • Many of our members have come from health and social care roles and this experience is certainly helpful in the doula role. However, we do see that when people have worked in such roles there is much ‘unlearning’ to be done to adapt to the doula ethos, which is non-medical and rooted in compassionate communities. It is also vital that doulas are able to be boundaried in their role, never straying outside of our remit despite our knowledge from other roles. Our training equips us to be able to do this for the benefit of all involved.

  • If you have any questions, we advise that you liaise with our training partners directly, their contact information can be found above.

Professor Allan Kellehear had this to say about the Living Well Dying Well Training and the way in which it delivers excellence:

“Living Well Dying Well Training is the premier UK learning centre offering experiential, classroom-based and field training that is professionally supervised and delivered, certified, and diploma based. They are the national leader in professional development of this pioneering approach. Our doulas learn how to foster, harness and enhance the community’s own abilities to provide compassion and presence at the end of life and they do so in a tried-and-tested professionally guided programme.”