Death Doula Training at Alive

About the Program

Our hybrid cohort offers 80+ hours of immersive instruction, hands-on practice, and specialty topics so you can tailor your learning experience to your goals. Optional specialty courses are available at a discounted rate through IDLM for those who want to deepen their training.

📅 Now Enrolling: February 2027 and July 2027
📍 Location: Virtual + Alive Grief Center (Nashville)
💲 Tuition: $999
💛 Financial Support: Scholarships, reduced rates, and payment plans available

Complete interest form to learn more!

Questions?

Email us at institute@AliveHospice.org

Excellence Without Barriers

The International Doula Life Movement Institute was founded to elevate the standard of doula education—rooted in ethics, real-world preparedness, and human-centered care.

In alignment with Alive’s mission to equip individuals with the skills and confidence to provide exceptional end-of-life and grief care, this program is designed to be both rigorous and accessible.

We believe this work should be available to everyone who feels called to it.

That’s why we offer:

• Partial to full scholarships
• Reduced rates for students, clergy, and volunteers
• Flexible payment plans

Because communities deserve compassionate doulas who reflect their diversity, dedication, and care.

What’s Included

Participants receive access to a wide range of benefits:

• Access to IDLM’s Signature Business 101 Program: a self-paced course with 7 modules, workbooks, and 1:1 support. ($400 value)
• Lifetime access to your course materials and future updates
• Ongoing graduate support, including 1:1 guidance when needed
• Access to International Doula Life Movement Institute family events
• Free admission to Alive’s annual end-of-life and grief symposium
• Free listing in the IDLM Doula Directory
• Discounts on future training through Alive and IDLM
• Monthly grief support sessions
• Monthly Death Positive Talks
• Access to IDLM’s private graduate community platform
• Workshops, webinars, and continuing education opportunities
• Open office hours for faculty support
• Students have access to advanced specialty training at a discounted rate through IDLM. These optional pathways include Advanced End-of-Life Doula, Advanced Care Planning, Grief Doula Specialist, Pediatric End-of-Life Doula, Cancer Doula & Patient Advocate, Dementia Doula, Pet Doula, and more.

You won’t just graduate trained. You’ll graduate ready.

Learn Inside a Living Care Environment

This isn’t theoretical learning—you’ll train within a real end-of-life care community. Gain experience through observation and direct practice in homes and inpatient settings alongside individuals and families navigating serious illness, terminal diagnoses, and grief.

Hands-On, Real-World Training

Use Alive’s state-of-the-art simulation lab to work through real-life scenarios, practicing ethical decision-making and building confidence in complex situations.

Clinical Immersion and Interdisciplinary Insight

Our structured clinical immersion pathway includes supervised mini-rotations, offering insight into the full spectrum of care. You won’t just learn about healthcare systems—you’ll learn how to move confidently within them.

• The history, ethics, and scope of end-of-life doula practice
• Communication skills and contemplative presence
• Stages of dying, common disease processes, and bedside care
• Grief support for your clients and for yourself

• Life planning, legal paperwork, and advance directives
• Legacy work, home wakes, funerals, and end-of-life ceremonies
• Inclusive care across diverse communities, faiths, and identities

• Pediatric hospice, perinatal loss, and pet end-of-life care
• Business foundations and how to build your doula practice
• Three doula apprenticeships and a final case study presentation

About Your Facilitator at Alive

Megan Morano creates spaces for honest, heart-centered conversations about death. For her, talking about death makes living more full. She helps build support networks and ceremonies that reflect who you are and what matters most, no matter your stage of life – just curious, aging, faced with a new diagnosis, or entering the final chapter of life.

Her path to this work began early. Growing up in a community touched by sudden loss, she noticed a difference: deaths in old age were honored and ritualized, while sudden deaths often lost their personal touch—quietly mourned, but rarely celebrated. Each person had a unique story, yet most farewells felt the same. As a teen hospital volunteer, she found meaning in listening, being present, and honoring the quiet moments near the end of life.

Years working in the events and music industry honed her gift for creating connection and beauty under pressure. But after facing her own illness in her twenties, Megan experienced firsthand the power of a Care Circle—a web of people who show up when you need it most. That experience guided her back to death work, where all her worlds meet: care, community, creativity, and truth. That calling continues in her professional life through both private practice, supporting patients and families in the community, and her work at Alive as a volunteer coordinator, supporting others called to this work. Walking alongside people during vulnerable transitions strengthens her commitment to practical support, emotional honesty, and dignity at every stage of dying.