A deep dive into Life & Death
Dr. Charfen now offers Psychedelic journeying and training with the legal use of ketamine during or as an add-on for the death doula trainings that she co-facilitates. These unique and one-of-a-kind trainings offer the opportunity for deep inner investigation into our most intimate relationship with life, death, nature, joy, grief and the Great Mystery.
Like most innovative and unconventional medical tools, it was Dr. Charfen’s terminal patients who introduced her to the concept and the research supporting psychedelic therapy to assist those suffering from significant fear and anxiety at the end of their lives.
Why combine death doula training and psychedelics?
Supported by Research
Psychedelics as a tool to support death anxiety is not a new concept as research dates back to the 1950s. However, it was not until 2016 that the Western medical system started to take notice, when two groundbreaking, randomized double-blind trials at world-renowned institutions (NYU and Johns Hopkins) demonstrated long-term, significant decreases in death anxiety and increases in quality of life for those with life-threatening illness.
An Emerging Field in EOL Care
Although in most states the classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD remain federally illegal outside of research studies, there is a growing field of palliative care practitioners who are providing this therapy in clinical practice. Their use of legal Ketamine and other psychedelics is showing promising benefits for people facing end-of-life, and their care groups,in dealing with significant stress, fear, and grief.
Ketamine is a Legal Psychedelic
Death Doula Professional & Personal Growth
The role of a doula is to educate and support the dying and their loved ones. It is imperative that doulas understand and can explain to their clients all options available to them at the end-of-life in an informed and nonjudgmental way. Psychedelics are one of those supportive options that may be helpful or possibly harmful, depending on a person’s physical, mental or social condition. An effective doula needs to be able to speak to these factors.
There are many similarities in how we sit and support the dying and how we do the same for a person having a psychedelic journey. This is one reason why we offer the experience of sitting and receiving the medicine and potentially touching what our patients may be experiencing. For those doulas drawn to specializing in psychedelic sitting for the dying, this safe experiential process can be educationally transformative.
The Inspired Endings EOL Doula training is already a profound examination of our personal relationship to living and dying. After spending several intense days nestled safely together to explore our losses, loves, joys and grief, the group is primed for a psychedelic journey that can potentially deepen and expand our own personal growth in unexpected and ineffable possibilities.
