Drawing on the wisdom of nature-based spirituality, Sarah designs and facilitates ceremonies that help her clients and their families to integrate experiences of illness, death and loss. These rituals honor the spiritual significance of what’s happening, and bring healing to the living and the dying and the dead. 
 
Sarah has a PhD in Transformative Learning, and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies. Her doctoral research explored the ways that modern western people can restore and re-create meaningful rituals for the significant transitions of life. She is a visual artist, and has been a student of spiritual and shamanic healing modalities since 2000. 
 
As a teacher and mentor to emerging death doulas, Sarah supports her students to find the unique healing gift they carry and to make it available to their communities. She facilitates private and public healing rituals, and regularly presents on topics of death midwifery and holistic death care. 
Saturday, 9:00am

Plenary: Community Ritual as Participatory Performance Art

The practice of ritual healing shares deep roots with the practice of theatrical performance. Each is designed to facilitate a shared altered state of consciousness. Each uses music, color, imagery, and symbolic action to create a powerful energetic container in which personal and collective transformation can occur.
 
Using stories from her work with dying people and their families, Sarah will explain ​and illustrate the basic principles of ritual healing, and describe the archetypal connections between ritual and performance art. Sarah’s visual art practice is deeply integrated with her ritual practice. She will also share examples of her hand-made ritual tools, and explain how she invites families to engage with these sacred objects to deepen and strengthen the healing container.

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​We’ll see you October 4!