Lisa Cheney-Philp
Founder, Death Doula, Artist, Creative Facilitator, River Guide
Women of the Water in Fort Collins, CO
Lisa is a death doula, river guide, artist, and creative facilitator who intuitively braids together her skills, training, and lived experiences to help women well-tend experiences of death, dying, grief, and loss and remember the ways and wisdom of water so they can restore their connection with the flow of Life. She has been embedded in Colorado communities and watersheds for over 20 years and currently serves the Northern Colorado region from her home in northwest Fort Collins.
"I felt overwhelmed, unprepared and exhausted. With Lisa's help, I opened to the sacredness, tenderness, presence, and total trust of death unfolding."
Gabi, age 33, Boulder, CO
Experience
6 years
Specialties
End-of-life care planning
Grief reprocessing
Legacy projects
Licenses / Certifications
End of Life Doula Certificate - Conscious Dying Institute (2018)
Education
Sacred Passage End of Life Doula Certificate Program - Conscious Dying Institute (2018)
What inspired you to get into this line of work?
I was initiated by death at the young age of 15 when my mother died from breast cancer at the age of 45. Many years later, I had a miscarriage before the healthy birth of my daughter. The ways these endings were tended individually and collectively varied significantly and each had profound impacts on my day-to-day and long-term health and well-being. Based on these experiences, I feel compelled to be a source of relief for women as an advocate and service provider for well-tended endings.
What's one piece of insight you wish all families knew?
Death, dying, grief, and loss are inherent and vital parts of the human experience that each and every one of us will be touched by in our lifetimes. In recent years, these parts have been overlooked and undervalued, making them feel scary, abnormal, and taboo. However, well-tending endings and moving grief are skills that anyone can learn or relearn. All you need is curiosity, willingness, creativity, intuition, a little bit of guidance and some helping hands.
What excites you most about working with Addio families?
Addio's technology helps to reduce the burden of tending to the sacred practicals of end-of-life which can often feel daunting, frustrating, and all-consuming. This means there is more time, space and energy available for family members and service providers to deepen into their attendance and engagement with other parts of the experience - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual - which consistently contributes to more fulfilling and beauty-filled experiences before, during, and after death.
Schedule a free consultation
Connect with Lisa Cheney-Philp and get answers to all your planning questions.