D oreen Power is a Spiritual Advisor, End-of-Life Coach/Healer and an Advocate for Hospice Palliative Care who has been working with family and friends over the last 15 years offering them a different perspective in the beauty of life and death. She acts as a facilitator during these final days/weeks with family – accessing the full situation, asking questions of professional staff when needed and then having family meetings. She encourages and supports people to step in and not to be as afraid. She validates all that is going on in a loving, caring way – at the same time, acknowledging families’ feelings then help them bracket so they can say/do what they need so they won’t have any regrets. She has provided compassionate care and support to the elderly in residential settings over the years. She volunteered at Canuck Place in Vancouver – a hospice for terminally ill children. She was a volunteer for 4 years with Perinatal Bereavement Services of Ontario, serving one year as a board member. She raises awareness on issues related to pregnancy loss and have helped raise funds for them. She is currently a volunteer caregiver at Perram House – a hospice for terminally ill. She has been their Hike Coordinator for the last 2 years for a national event to raise funds and create awareness. She has helped a number of families using the hospice palliative care philosophy.
As it became apparent as to what she wanted to do – the area of death and dying – she was blessed with a wonderful school called Transformational Arts College here in Toronto that helped anchor a lot of what she knew, helped build her confidence and to learn how to truly be available and present to others in need. She studied Spiritual Director and Spiritual Psychotherapy. The last 2 years she has been active in the community gaining a greater understanding of hospice palliative care i.e. attending hospice palliative care conferences. Finally, she has decided the key for her now is creating and having opportunities wherever possible to share her experiences as a layperson and hope it can be of some help to others when they need it.
She is committed to doing this work because she believes when possible everyone has the human right to die peacefully and with the utmost dignity. It is an opportunity for healing, if one so desires, for the person who is dying and/or family members. In so doing our hearts and souls will be enriched and touched in ways that is indescribable.
Recently she has appeared on several radio shows and T.V.
Today, she believes we need the same evolvement/revolution for death and dying as we have done for pregnancy and birthing over the last 50 years. She says “we have come along way with that - when we do this over time with dying then she believes we will have come full circle in taking care of each other in the deepest way possible.
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