These in-person Deathwalker Trainings with Zenith Virago are a comprehensive and transformative experience. She has taught versions of this Training for over 25 years, and has worked as a pioneer in more contemporary and holistic death care practices for over 30 years.
The Deathwalker Trainings are highly regarded, and have been delivered to people for their personal, professional or complimentary use, as they are applicable to everyone. They are an invaluable body of work to help start you off, wake you up, or to enhance your already rich personal or professional experience. For many, they are unexpectedly lifechanging.
Zenith is an acknowledged, respected Elder and pioneer practitioner in the profound work of hands-on end of life and after-death care. She has been teaching, pre-need, end of life, after-death care and powerful ceremony. She delivers everything with an embodied openness, honesty and a candour that allows you to go deeper than you thought possible. Check out her website, TEDX talk and many video/audio links.
Our definition of a Deathwalker is:-
- a person who walks their own journey towards their death as openly, courageously and as best they can.
- a person who walks with or accompanies others, in their death or bereavement journey to encourage and empower them to be as open, courageous and the best they can. Offering guidance to encourage and empower everyone.
Zenith is trying to offer the learnings from 30 years of experience in to this 3 day non-residential Training. It is nearly everything you need to know about death, dying & ceremony, covering social, legal, practical, emotional and many other aspects of the journey. It is deep, authentic work and includes, but is much more than just death doula work.
This is an intensive, informative and intimate workshop. Enabling you to explore your relationship to your own death, affirming what you may intrinsically know deep down, caring or working with others, and preparing you by sharing and explaining multiple aspects of the death, dying, loss and ceremony process, and so much more.
She brings a wealth of lived experience, a hybrid of generosity, for you to take what you need, into a new, richer place to do this work personally or professionally. As a bonus it will help you face your own death with more awareness and grace. Listen to your heart, find the experienced teacher that sings to you and opens you to a deeper awareness of life, death, yourself and humanity.
This exceptional Training covers the whole spectrum from wellness to bereavement, it’s about knowing what your options are, considering them, and making the decisions that are right for you. It is interactive between participants and Zenith, amongst many others things it includes:
- Exploring and reframing more useful language
- Sustainable self-care in caring or working with the dying & bereaved
- Pre-need legal information, preparation and advocacy
- Transitioning from illness into dying
- Care for the dying and after-death body-care
- Expected and sudden death
- Shrouding & Body disposal options
- Understanding Ceremony structure and content
- Working with trauma through ceremony
- Healthier bereavement and loss.
Combining a hybrid of ancient and more contemporary ways of being present, real and beneficial at a challenging time, appropriate for everyone – for your own personal journey, to accompany a family member or friend, to increase professional skills or if you feel you have a calling to some or all aspects of this work.
Classes comprise up to 24 people, allowing an intimate alchemy to arise, which encourages personal exploration, growth and questions to also occur within the collective experience.
*In some locations, there is basic overnight accommodation so please contact us if you want to explore that option.
On completion of Deathwalker Training, participants receive a Certificate of Attendance. After careful consideration, the NDCC chose not to become an RTO, and not to offer accredited Training. Currently it is not possible to describe yourself as a Qualified or Certified Deathwalker. If it was a certifiable course, it would need to be much longer than 3 days, and would require competency tasks and assessments.
We decided to deliver this body of work, universal knowledge and practical information for people, so they could add to or enhance their existing knowledge and experience. Their inherent capacity to do death well. Rather than create a much longer more complex and expensive course, we trust each person will take this Training and allow it to evolve and grow them in the most beneficial way for each person and their communities.
See Training section for more detailed content info.