Alua Arthur is an amazing Death Doula who gave a talk about her role back in 2023. This video is a little over 18 minutes long and it’s packed with insights about the Death Doula role. You can click here to view the video on Ted.com.

Alua shares my view that we are living with an unhealthy relationship with death, and it’s not doing us any favours.

“I think a lot of the old way of thinking is largely responsible for the death phobia that we currently experience in today’s culture and society … where we pretend it’s not happening, where bodies are whisked away to funeral homes just moments after the death has occurred. We don’t take time with the body. We don’t take time to talk about death. We pretend it’s not happening until it’s too late. That death phobia has caused a real crisis, I think, in this country and in the West overall, where we are living out of relationship with nature and with our mortality, which is ultimately a detriment to us as a culture, but also to us as individuals.”

A healthy understanding of death really does help give one a healthier relationship with life.

Alua has a book published and I am excited to get a copy of it. If you wish to explore more of Alua’s work, check out Going with Grace.