What is a Death Cafe? Fancy creating one or attending one?
Suzanne coordinated and ran a monthly Death Cafe in London for 3 years, from 2013 to 2016. She stopped when she started to work as a palliative healthcare assistant at Trinity Hospice. However, you are more than welcome to contact her if you want some information about her varied experiences facilitating one.
What to expect when attending one?
A Death Cafe is a unique place where anybody for whatever personal reason (bereavement, philosophical, awareness of own mortality etc) can come and talk. You can talk about your concerns, ideas, pain, fears, stories around death. The level of authenticity, openness, vulnerability and respect is intrinsic to the nature of the sharing. This results in the participants leaving in a state of deep nourishment. Those two hours offer a solace from mainstream society which treats death, dying and bereavement as taboos.
Although it is not at such a place for bereavement counselling, it can have nonetheless that effect. Indeed, it is healing to find a space where you feel safe to openly speak about your loss, sorrows or concerns. There is a natural and healing sense of humour, when people spontaneously find the uplifting and the funny in the tragic. As a result of this shared humour that still respect people’s feelings, a sense of relief and normality finds its place.
You will learn to listen with respect to others views and experiences around death and dying. In turn, you will feel whilst safe to share your own. Multicultural approaches and understanding of death are definitely a plus of such a place of sharing.
Following from attending a death cafe
If you are in need of support around bereavement or palliative care do check my spiritual bereavement counselling work.
If you recovering from bereavement or from caring after a terminally ill loved one and feel the need to find direction in your life, a soul plan reading might be what you need.
If you are in need of an energy boost after caring or a loss, check my chakra balancing work.