Lincoln in the Bardo: Metaphors for Moving Grievers Between

Metaphors are “pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system… is fundamentally metaphorical in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003, p. 3). Yet what part might fiction itself play toward healing a person bereaved? Even a constructivist psychological approach to loss might hesitate at outright ghost stories, […]

Candy Apples: Stand by Me and The Worm at the Core

Stand by Me, the classic Hollywood movie set in 1959 small-town Oregon and released in 1986, is characterised by director Rob Reiner in his DVD commentary as a personalised indulgence of his own youth: his favourite slang of the era, his favourite childhood TV shows, cartoons and comics, and indeed his favourite music from the […]

Part 3: Ghosting

This three-part series is inspired by training in June 2023 as an end-of-life (EOL) doula with Henry Fersko-Weiss. Henry is a key pioneer of the modern death doula movement, with more than 20 years experience not only serving hundreds of people at their deathbeds, but also training thousands of people in EOL doula work, contributing […]

Part 1: Presence in the Room

This three-part series is inspired by training in June 2023 as an end-of-life (EOL) doula with Henry Fersko-Weiss. Henry is a key pioneer of the modern death doula movement, with more than 20 years experience not only serving hundreds of people at their deathbeds, but also training thousands of people in EOL doula work, contributing […]