Welcome to Anamchara

Offering Anam Cara - a soul companion for the palliative and hospice journey.

We will our journey from life into death. We are not digital creatures. We do not have an on/off button. This is a process. We travel from here, to hereafter. Regardless of our spiritual beliefs, or our state of health today, we progress from the now, what we know, to the unknown - the divine mystery of the body's demise. An Anam Cara (anamchara, death doula) is a soul friend, a companion, along this journey. Our society, our communities, avoid speaking of death. Let's change this, together. Let's walk this journey, together. When you are ready to explore death yourself, regardless of your health, or want to comfort your family member, including pets, I meet you where you're at. The best travels include a soul friend. I travel with you. This is what an Anam Cara does. You, and your family's spiritual comfort is paramount to me.

Home: Welcome

Amanchara, a palliative and hospice soul companion for people and pets.

Please see some of the services we offer below, to assist you, your family, or a beloved pet, during the body's transition from life to death.

Home: Services

Supporting you and your care-family before, during, and after palliative or hospice care.

I am a death doula, sometimes referred to as an anamchara. I offer any level of companionship you need to explore and assist in non-medical aspects of death and dying. If you'd like to confront your fear of death, we can do that together. If you are in palliative care, in-patient or home hospice, you've doubtless discovered medical care offers comfort to your body during scheduled visits, or pain crisis. However, this is not usually done full-time (though there are exceptions.) An anamchara can support medical staff by offering you non-medical companionship that is as individual as YOU are. Perhaps this means an intentional silence. It may mean a musical interlude, or conversation. You might want companionship while scrapbooking, or video-making. Perhaps you'd like a small butterfly garden.
Additionally, an Anamchara doula might research alternative burial or legal concerns. We may give respite to family, or care team, in any way they find meaninful. Let's change our perception of death. Congratulations! We will explore this great mystery together, as soul companions. There is joy to be found in this journey.

About Nyx as my amanchara muse

My anamchara designation, Nyx: Nyx (Νύξ Nýx), was know as a daughter of Chaos in Greek myth. She was mother to Thanatos (Death); Hypnos (Sleep); and Philotes (kind friendship). She was also a minor oracle. Myth is archetypal. We understand it as symbolic, a way to navigate our consciousness. As an Anam Cara, I am quite obviously neither a goddess or oracle. However, the designation Nyx reminds me of our sacred duies to each other. We must offer community care during the dying process, beyond that which I offer here. We are bound together in the most complex of networks: our lives. We should be equally, gracefully bound when it comes to facing this greatest of mysteries, this process of death we all will share. The oracle Nyx reminds me of a sacred trust, to use all resources to explore the nexus between her symbolic legacies of dreaming, sleep, friendship, and death.

About me

I bring to my calling as an Anam Cara a background as an activist lawyer who engages in a mission to fight toxic secrets in our U.S. government. If we are not truthful in life, we cannot be honest when we face death.
I hold an M.A. in Linguistics, and a B.A. in Poetics in a technology-based economy. I've been fortunate to study with poets and filmmakers of the New School, among other areas, and whom maintain poetic and filmic lineages that range from Samuel Beckett to Stan Brakhage.
I've practiced a range of law, from real-estate and title class actions, to street law, and the protection of whistleblowers.

Contact me for more information at 305.926.8245. I serve all of the Pacific Northwest, including California, Oregon, and Washington States, with a focus on Mendocino, Humboldt, Tinity, Del Norte, Tehama, and Shasta Counties. However, I am fortunate to be able to travel anywhere needed. I am a licensed lawyer who has studied death doula work for many years. My time is available to you, dependent only on prior bookings. Please book as early as feasible, so I can accomodate you.

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