Tracy Corey
I am passionate about our part in evolving the death and grief culture so that fewer people find themselves frozen and dissociated from the deeply transformative opportunities offered by consciously tending to death, both literal and metaphorical. In doing the work, we evolve personally and relationally, and cultivating our ability to do so is a gift that feeds life exponentially. As human beings, we need deep connection to our underworld journeys. As do the ones we love. As death and grief workers, we bring that into our work while often neglecting it in ourselves. Serving fellow death and grief workers in this way is an opportunity I’m grateful for every day. - Tracy Corey, CEOLD
Tracy has been working in end-of-life issues since 2011 when her father’s long battle with cancer turned end-stage. She was deeply humbled by the ethereal quality of presence that wraps around that time and space while also being enlightened by what felt like a gap in services that could assist individuals and families during one of the most challenging times in their lives. It was then that she answered the call to companion the dying and those who care for them.
As a death doula, Tracy provides non-medical holistic support in emotional, spiritual, and practical matters that can include but are not limited to: education; logistical support; advocacy; creating and/or assisting in legacy projects; respite care; bedside vigil; end-of-life comfort care; and aftercare. She is non-judgmental and flexible, recognizing that people are unique, every situation is different, and people come to this sacred time on a wide spectrum. She honors who you are, where you are, what you need, and brings with her the resources she has developed and collected over the years to help minimize stress and maximize presence.
Tracy is also a devoted mother, a bibliophile, a poet, a rockhound, and always seems to have at least one rescue animal.
Tracy is a Certified End-of-Life Doula, owner/operator of StillpointTransitions.com, co-founder and co-facilitator at Death and Grief Worker Collective, member of Tucson End-of-Life Doulas, a hospice volunteer, and a member of NEDA, INELDA, and NHFA.
Jeremy E. Damec
As a grief counselor, I have learned that the edges of grief are constantly changing, contracting, and expanding. I have come to understand grief is unique to each of us, our life experiences, our relationships, and how a death or loss has occurred. There is no one way to grieve for grief is as unique as a person’s fingerprint or a snowflake. Grief carries us into the unknown, the liminal spaces where we can feel vulnerable, tender, exposed, and misunderstood.
Grief is normal to our very human existence. We explore, tend to, be with, and share about what we hold without judgement, expectations, and with a compassionate heart. A safe place to be vulnerable and to integrate our experiences and the grief we hold.
When we open to our grief, we can begin to move into it and allow it to teach us as we gain a deeper awareness and deeper understanding of who we and integrate this into our life story, our life tapestry.
Jeremy E. Damec received his master’s in Counseling Psychology from University of San Francisco in 2006. Jeremy has worked with youth and families in San Francisco and in Mexico providing therapeutic services and developing community programs to support family and youth development.
After his mother’s death from cancer in 2009, and his very personal walk with grief and loss, he began his journey in 2015 working with families and their loved ones who are approaching the end of life. Jeremy’s father died in February 2018. Because of the journey he walked with his father at the end of his life, Jeremy was guided to chaplaincy work. In September 2018, Jeremy was accepted into the Sojourn Chaplaincy Program at San Francisco General Hospital. In his work at Sojourn Chaplaincy, Jeremy cultivated a deeper foundation and understanding of grief but also hope which he brings into his death and grief work with the dying and their
families. In his own life and in his experiences accompanying clients in their grief, he has come to understand that grief is a very personal journey. If we allow, grief can teach us to love deeply, to live fully, and to embrace all that is before us. Many times, as difficult and as deeply profound as our grief can be, Roshi Joan Halifax says it best, “To turn away from grief is to turn away from life.” My invitation to you: Let us come together and let us walk together in our grief, to acknowledge, to experience, and to begin to integrate our grief into the tapestry of who we are and our life as we walk forward forever changed.
Jeremy lives in Mexico with his husband and their cat and fur baby, Minnie.