In the last few weeks I’ve had a handful of conversations with friends, and an ongoing one with my son, that have all echoed each other in ways I’m still sitting with. Different people, different situations, same wall hit at the same place. We were all talking about autonomy. About making real choices. About being…
My very first death doula client came to me through a neighbor of mine. The neighbor thought this woman could use a death doula, and made the introduction. I’ll call her Sassypants here, the name I teasingly used for her, which tells you most of what you need to know about her. In our first…
May is a tricky month for grief and me. My mom died in 2007. May was her birth month. It’s also Mother’s Day. And my maternal grandmother, Grandma Becky, died in May two years before my mom did. So every year, May arrives and it’s not just spring. It’s like a carnival funhouse, laughter around…
I still feel every pet I’ve ever lost in my heart, and I still grieve each one. Thunder was the first. She was all black with a white spot on her belly, and I loved her fiercely. She was the first pet that chose me as her own, and she died when I was nine….
Here’s something you might need to hear today: love and rage can coexist.
You can show up with tenderness and still want to scream in your car afterward. You can be devoted and still feel trapped. You can be doing your best and still be angry that this is your life right now.
That doesn’t make you a bad caregiver. It makes you a caregiver who’s telling the truth.
Talking about sex, touch, and intimacy after loss Grief and sex. Two things we’re trained to talk about in whispers, if we’re allowed to talk about them at all. But here’s the inconvenient truth: they’re tangled together. Not because grief is “romantic,” and not because sex is some kind of cure. They’re linked because both…
This season, you are not failing the holidays because you can’t manufacture cheer on command. In this piece, we explore why grief can feel so sharp in November and December, how to set boundaries with people who “just want you to be happy,” and simple rituals and resources to help you build a holiday that honors your loss instead of erasing it.
Grief after suicide is heavy and complicated. Tonight’s Death Circle with Pollinate Hive House is a low-pressure space: come to listen, sit quietly, or share if you wish. No requirements. Just a safe, loving room, steady facilitation, and community care. Details and RSVP inside.
I’m Erika Hall. I do my work where culture looks away. I am a Taboo Doula My passions live where culture looks away…death and sex. I created the Taboo Doula path to bring them back into honest light. End-of-life support and embodiment belong together here, alongside open and honest talk about consent, kink, aftercare, safety,…
I’m joining Pollinate Hive House, an inclusive neighborhood home for care. First up: a Death Circle with Charlotte’s Door for suicide-loss survivors on Nov 7 at 6 pm CT.