March 17, 2025

Ep. 493 The Good Death: An End-of-Life Guide with Suzanne B. O’Brien RN

1 hour 7 minutes

Learn what it means to have a “good death” and how and why we all need to prepare for the end of life to benefit ourselves, our loved ones and our planet.

My guest Suzanne B. O’Brien RN is the founder and CEO of Doulagivers Institute and a “pioneer” in the global death doula movement. She has trained hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world to care those at the end of life. Most recently Suzanne is the author of The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One Through the End of Life. She discusses the book and why it’s so important that we facilitate a shift in how we experience death at this time in our world. Learn more at her websites:

Doulagivers.com

TheGoodDeathBook.com

Get the book here

Watch on YouTube

Listen here:

This episode includes:

How Suzanne first got started offering free end-of-life trainings to lay people as a hospice nurse

Why hospice care alone can’t fix all the problems with how we approach the end of life

How as a society we lost generational knowledge about caring for the sick, dying and dead at home

Why allowing natural death can be a better choice than aggressive life-prolonging treatment

Most family members lack the skills and training to care for their dying loved ones at home

As the physical body goes through the dying process the spiritual aspect of life becomes more apparent

Contemplating mortality helps us shift our mindset about death and changes how we live our lives

How rituals help us cope with the losses we experience in life and death

Links mentioned in this episode:

Register for Caritas Consciousness Project event on March 28th (I will be presenting) https://tinyurl.com/WyattCaritas

Access to Competent Caregiver Course with Suzanne (Buy 3 books and get the course for free)

NEW Gift Guides for Caregivers, People Receiving Care, and People Who are Grieving

Get my two newest books!! Stories from the Dark Night and The Tao of Death

Get EOLU Podcast Merch here

Conversations on Death with ChatGPT – Audiobook here; Print Book here

Leave me a message by email: [email protected], Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Soul

Subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher Radio

Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here

Join the team at Patreon.com/eolu and receive free gifts like the “Mind if we talk about death?” mini-poster or Love Your Life sticker or coffee mug. PLUS get our regular bonuses: the monthly EOL News Update, monthly What to Watch recommendations, Behind the Scenes Bonus content, and automatic access to A Year of Reading Dangerously!

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By Karen Wyatt MD

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