Dying Your Way

What happens after a life-changing diagnosis? In this candid and heartfelt episode, Claire O’Berry shares her personal journey following her husband’s recent Parkinson’s diagnosis. From the first awkward conversation with the doctor to the sobering reality of future planning, Claire explores what it means to truly understand your disease — and how to take empowered steps fo...

James Jarvis, CEO of Busselton Hospice Inc., joins Claire O’Berry for a powerful conversation about grief, resilience, and what it means to support community-based end-of-life care. From personal stories of loss to groundbreaking new initiatives like Staying in Place Busselton, James shares why Busselton Hospice is a model of compassion, leadership, and innovation. Perfect timing for Dying t...

In this powerful episode of the Dying Your Way podcast, Claire O’Berry tackles a topic many avoid until it’s too late: Advance Care Planning. With heartfelt stories, clear explanations, and practical advice, Claire breaks down the four essential documents every adult should have in place—regardless of age or health. From medical power of attorney to living wills, from do-not-resu...

Claire O’Berry sits down with Georges Cordoba, bestselling author of Beating the Odds, to discuss his extraordinary journey of healing from stage 4 melanoma. Georges shares how he moved from surgeries and chemotherapy to a holistic approach that integrated forgiveness, faith, and emotional release. In this powerful conversation, Georges opens up about: Facing terminal cancer with courage Why...

In this episode, Claire O’Berry shares why building an end-of-life support team is one of the most empowering and essential things you can do. From early diagnosis to hospice care and beyond, having trusted people in place makes all the difference. You’ll learn: Why you (the patient) are the team leader The 10 key roles to consider—from MPOA to Celebrant How caregivers and doulas...

In this powerful episode of the Dying Your Way Podcast, Rev. Cress Darwin returns to reflect on faith, forgiveness, aging, and dying with grace. He shares deeply personal stories—from sitting with the dying, to ministering after the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting, to finding divine love in the middle of crisis. Claire and Cress explore what it means to surrender, to forgive without forge...

In this episode of Dying Your Way, Claire O’Berry explores two essential tools—mindfulness and mind-mapping—to help bring clarity, peace, and intentionality to end-of-life planning. Learn how to navigate overwhelm, prioritize what matters most, and make empowered decisions well before a crisis hits. A practical and heart-centered guide for living—and dying—on your ter...

In our latest Dying Your Way podcast episode, I’m joined by the luminous Dr. Toni Reilly—renowned psychotherapist, past-life specialist, and now author of the soul-stirring book Grief is Not the Death of You. It’s been five years since I last interviewed Toni, and what a journey she’s been on since then. In this intimate and honest conversation, we explore how grief—w...

Welcome to a brand-new season of the Dying Your Way podcast! In this kickoff episode, host Claire O’Berry shares a heartfelt reflection on the evolution of end-of-life conversations in our ever-changing world. She offers insights into what’s ahead for Season 4 and reintroduces the mission that started it all. Whether you’re facing a life-threatening illness, supporting a loved on...

Sean Cunningham is best known as a producer and director of horror movies, like Friday the 13th, but it is his documentary, The Nurse with the Purple Hair, that is changing how we look at death and dying. In this documentary he curiously lifts the curtain on the reality of hospice care. It is a documentary of love at the end of life. Grab a tissue! Claire and Sean during the interview will have yo...

In this episode, listeners meet Co-Founder, Terry Mepham, who is the behind the scenes force behind Dying Your Way; an innovative concept to teach death literacy globally to anyone, anywhere and anytime. Core to the curriculum is the concept that death is a sacred event and feelings of fear, pain and anxiety can be diminished through proper planning and early palliative care, allowing better quali...

Great teachers through the ages have taught the importance of facing death as a conscious and sacred event. Reverend Bodhi Be has carried this torch as an end of life leader and innovator globally, as well as for his local Hawaiian community. He is an ordained interfaith minister and teacher in the Sufi lineage. As Founder and Executive Director of Doorway Into Light, his life and teachings encour...

More and more we see the funeral industry turn to eco options. No one does this better than Kotuku Funerals in Cromwell, New Zealand. Leigh-Anne Fox is a funeral home owner and director of Maori descent who blends the best of traditional burials with the culturally rich “tangi”. The tangihanga is the enduring 3 day Maori ceremony for mourning someone who has died.  Learn more about choices at the...

What is end of life and the opportunity to change our perspective? Death is a kind of initiation that involves ceremony. It is a right of passage and training for others to be able to face the deaths we all must suffer, large and small. There is a new "you" being born at many life junctures. Ritual provides comfort and support to meet those moments and better understand the soul's journey. Some ar...

VSED - Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking at the end of life, is a legal but controversial topic in many states and countries. Judith Schwarz PhD, RN and Clinical Director with End of Life Choices New York, explains what VSED is and isn’t. Who are the most likely candidates, and who would choose this option? Judith is a researcher, lecturer and author on this topic, and supported many suffer...

Jason was led to write a blog around the top five regrets at the end of life, which prompted our conversation about the importance of legacy.  He speaks of the freedom of forgiveness or as the Hawaians would say Ho’oponopono. He reads a Prayer for the Dying from the Neale Donald Walsch book Home With God and shares with this audience the unique experience of channeling with the enlightened masters...

Join the conversation with Julie Ryan, a world renowned medical intuitive and psychic healer. Two Southern gals have a deep and meaningful interview around Julie Ryan’s fascinating work with dying patients and what actually transpires at the time of death. This episode is not to be missed! Be sure and listen to the end for her free book offer for Dying Your Way podcast listeners. Connect wit...

In this second Dying Your Way interview with Stephen Jenkinson, he shares with podcast host, Claire O’Berry, his take on the last two years and how in the end, death is the common denominator that we all share. “Death means you no harm. Though it means you. You belong to the ending of your days.” This past palliative care provider, poet and philosopher of our time will have you t...

Grief Specialist and counselor Barb Adler reflects on the power of mindfulness as tool to connect and witness feelings, to better support anyone living or dying. Starting as a counselor during the HIV / AIDS epedemic in San Francisco, Barb had to confront her own unresolved grief while learning to be present and in the moment to clients receiving what was then a death sentence. Barb has built on t...

Hospice social workers provide little known or understood psycho-social support to patients and their families at the end of life. As part of an interdisciplinary team, palliative care and hospice social workers are your link to mental health support and relevant community resources. Listen to licensed clinical social worker Lisa Pahl break it all down.  As co-creator of the Death Deck with L...

What happens when we step into the discomfort of grief?  We continue the exploration of how to navigate grief and the loss of love with Leanne O’Shea, a dedicated grief and bereavement counselor. As Managing Director of the Southwest Grief and Loss Centre, Leanne explains what is a compassionate community and how to build one. She encourages conversations on the importance of knowing mo...

Sometimes grief and loss lifts humanity up, and tragedy becomes triumph. Michele Neff Hernandez founder and CEO of Soaring Spirits International was named a CNN Hero for 2021 because of the peer support Soaring Spirits gives to widows worldwide. We talk about her book, Different After You: Rediscovering Yourself After Grief or Trauma and find we share much in common … and laughter. There is...

African Americans have historical distrust of the medical community which has an impact on end of life care. They also have rich spiritual connections that have built a strong sense of community as they historically took care of their own during times of loss. How does this translate to the current reality of death and dying in the African American community?  Listen to counsellor and educato...

In 2020, 700,000 people died of AIDS and 37 million are currently living with AIDS while the Coronavirus pandemic rages on. Listen to Gary Paul Wright, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African American Office of Gay Concerns, and his husband, Peter Oates, Director of Health Care Services, School of Nursing at Rutgers University speak of the concerns and progress the pandemic has provided t...

When it comes to end of life issues, few are as controversial as allowing an individual to choose to end their own life legally. Gabrielle Elise Jimenez is an author, Hospice Nurse and End of Life Doula who has been at the bedside with many terminal patients who choose to end their life by their own hand and in their own time, now that it is legal in California. We discuss the many-stepped criteri...