Courses and Trainings
Welcome to our Education Programs!
Sacred Crossings Institute offers death education classes and intensive certificate trainings for the Death Doula and Death Midwife.
Our trainings are open to professional and non-professional end-of-life caregivers and anyone wishing to prepare for a conscious, peaceful transition.
Classes are deeply rooted in spiritual practices from a variety of cultures and traditions and are facilitated by our founder, Olivia Bareham, and supported by guest speakers. Classes are offered via live webinar or in-person in Los Angeles.
“Olivia created a container that was sacred, safe and cohesive to move through a tremendous amount of emotionally stimulating content. Thorough, sensitive and complete.” – Satya Love
See below for class details and curriculum
Scroll down for training schedule & registration links
The two-level Death Doula training contains all information necessary to prepare and support individuals and their families throughout the dying journey.
Graduates receive the Death Doula Certificate of Completion
Open the boxes below for topics covered in each level.
Scroll down for registration links
Level I - Enter the Grave
This foundation course will radically transform your fears and beliefs about death and dying.
Students learn tools to eliminate death anxiety, and receive death with open-hearted acceptance.
Topics Explored
- Giving Birth / Receiving Death
- Connecting to source through somatic movement
- Examining fears and beliefs
- Energy fields and the luminous body
- Releasing the past
- Healing ancestral wounds
- Family Constellations
- The journey of the soul
- Buddhist perspectives on death and dying
- The life review
- The death rehearsal
Level II - Conscious Dying
Students learn how to guide and support the death journeyer and their family from terminal diagnosis to the last breath; how to hold a family through sudden death
Topics Explored
- Completing advance directives
- Holding the container for fear and sorrow
- Avoiding death in the I.C.U.
- What to say to the dying
- Pain vs. Suffering
- Organ donation
- Physician aid in dying
- VSED – Voluntarily Stopping Eating & Drinking
- The spiritual process of dying
- Being a healing presence at the death bed
- Creating a legacy project
- Healing relationships / Saying goodbye
- Meditations and practices for relieving death anxiety
- Rituals at the deathbed
Graduating students will qualify to take the NEDA proficiency test.
The Death Midwife training is for Sacred Crossings Death Doulas wishing to further their studies. This two-level training includes instruction in caring for the body after death, home funerals, final disposition and officiating the funeral service.
Graduates receive a certificate of completion for both Death Midwife and Funeral Celebrant
Pre-requisite Death Doula Levels I & II
Open the boxes below for topics covered in each level.
Scroll down for registration links
Level III - After the Last Breath
The role of the death midwife from the final breath through the 3-day home vigil, funeral and final disposition.
Students learn after-death rituals, legalities and logistics for holding a 3-day vigil at home, how to understand and navigate funeral industry practices and alternatives to cremation and burial.
Topics Explored
- Unexpected death: holding space in the ER
- After-death rites and rituals
- Legalities and logistics of home vigils and funerals
- Preparation of the body (bathing, dressing, anointing)
- Laying the body in honor
- Stillbirth/infant death: bringing the baby home
- Options for final disposition – Green Burial /Alkaline Hydrolysis /Full Body Sea Burial /Recomposition
- Funeral Industry Protocols
- Coroner / Autopsy / Transporting the deceased
- After-death traditions
- Completing the Death Care Directive
- Self-care for caregivers: preventing burnout
Level IV - The Life Celebration - Funeral Celebrant Training
The Celebration of Life is the commemoration of one’s unique contribution to humanity and is an important part of the healing process for loved-ones.
Students learn the steps and skills to create unique, personal and deeply moving funeral and memorial ceremonies.
This is a highly interactive workshop where students are challenged to think outside the box to create powerful mock funerals and memorial ceremonies to honor the dead.
Graduates receive an additional certificate for 25 hours training as Funeral Celebrant.
Topics Explored
- The role of the Funeral Celebrant
- Designing & producing the funeral & Memorial service
- Children and funerals
- Creating sacred space
- Writing the eulogy
- Channeling the grief
- Rituals and tributes
- Opening and closing remarks / prayers & poems
- Virtual memorial services /graveside services / ashes scattering service
- Pet Funerals
- Obituaries /
Schedule of Classes & Trainings & Registration
Death Doula = Levels I & II
Death Midwife = Levels I, II, III & IV
Click on the date for course details & registration
Each class is a stand-alone course. Students may interchange webinar & in-person classes
Death Doula Training
Students may take courses out of sequence & interchange webinar and in-person.
Click the date for details and registration.
LEVEL II ‘CONSCIOUS DYING’
Webinar
9am – 5pm daily
$495
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LEVEL I ‘ENTER THE GRAVE’
Webinar
9am – 5pm daily
$495
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LEVEL II ‘CONSCIOUS DYING’
Webinar
9am – 5pm daily
$495
********
LEVEL I & II
In-Person
Los Angeles, California
$1200
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Graduates receive a Certificate of Completion for Death Doula and are eligible to take the NEDA proficiency test.
If you have difficulty registering for a class, please write to
Death Midwife Training
An advance intensive for Sacred Crossings Death Doulas.
Pre-requisite Level I & II
Please write to SacredCrossings@gmail.com to register.
LEVEL III & IV
In Person
Includes:
Level III
‘AFTER THE LAST BREATH’
Preparation of the Body, Home Funerals & Final Disposition
&
LEVEL IV
‘THE LIFE CELEBRATION’
Rituals & Ceremonies for the Funeral Celebrant
Space is limited to 30 students. Early registration recommended.
“This course was TRULY life changing. Olivia is an incredible teacher, I learned so much – much more in depth than I thought. Such a personal spiritual and emotional journey. Thank you!”
-Kristen Sheridan
“The class work is comprehensive, deep and intimate and I strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to ask questions and process with other students. Together, we create a safe container whether we meet in person or via the zoom format.
The material, stories and films shared are constantly updated from my experiences with families utilizing our alternative funeral home and my work in the field as a Death Midwife.
It is a profound honor to offer these teachings and to help in some small way to change the culture of death and dying.
I look forward to meeting you.”
With love,
Olivia
“Olivia creates the most sacred of spaces, in which the parts of yourself that are beyond your words, beyond your knowing, and even those parts that perhaps you’ve deemed beyond the reach of love, are able to bubble up to the surface, express themselves, and either be integrated or be released, depending on whether or not they serve your path.”
-Kendell Courtney Klein
Special Offering
FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS!
For Death Doulas and Death Midwives and those who are navigating the end-of-this-life journey.
These lively, informative evenings provide an opportunity to share resources and hear stories and tips from our founder, Olivia Bareham. Please join us!
Free Webinars!
ASK THE DEATH MIDWIFE!
First Friday of every month on ZOOM.
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM PST/PDT
For those who are dying and all who care for them. Bring your questions!
“What happens at death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximation of it”
– C.G. Jung
The Advance Death Care Directive
Would you like a Shroud? Casket? Funeral service? Home funeral? Fire Cremation? Water Cremation? Buried at sea? Turned into Soil?
There are so many decisions!
Write your wishes down in this digital planner.
"Relieve your loved ones from making these difficult decisions, complete your directive today!"
Contact Sacred Crossings
If you would like to join our e-mail list or have any questions about our education programs or funeral services, please complete the form below.