Hosted by Josefine Speyer

Date:	Sept. 8, 2014
Start time:	6:30 p.m. (BST)
End time:	9:15 p.m. (BST)
Address:	38-39 High Street Hampstead, London NW3 1QE United Kingdom
	Donations are welcome!

This Death Cafe has taken place

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About this Death Cafe

This Death Cafe is now fully booked!

Please arrive early and place an order with our waiter, Antonio. There will be a short break half way through the evening. You can settle your bill then or at the end. Make sure you give your name and table number to avoid confusion. Thank you!

We like to take photographs of the event for our website and to advertise our Death Cafe. If you rather not be in a photograph let Josefine know. There are some tables which are easily out of view.

Each table has its own facilitator during the first half of the evening.

 

 

 

There are only two rules we ask everyone to agree to: 1. Treat everyone with respect and allow for differences in opinion and experience: Everyone has a right to their own beliefs and ideas. Allow everyone a chance to speak. 2. People share personal stories, to be treated with confidentiality.

 

About Josefine Speyer

Josefine Speyer is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor with a special interest in grief, bereavement and death education. She was a co-founder, director and trustee of the Natural Death Centre (1991), an educational charity of which she is now a patron, offering talks, workshops and study days. A co-editor of the Natural Death Handbook (2005). A co-founder, trainer and supervisor of the Befriending Network (1994) charity providing trained volunteers offering support to people with life-threatening or terminal illness living at home, developed a death education course for the charity and acted as trainer and supervisor until 2000. She was a supervisor for the Brent Bereavement Service for many years.

She sees Death Cafes as part of the natural death movement, which embraces death as a natural part of life which we ought to educate ourselves about. She holds monthly Death Cafes at Café Rouge. Since November 2012 she has hosted Death Cafés at her home in NW London, in Hampstead’s Café Rouge, in Oxford and Lewes.

Sharon Young, has practiced as a Physiotherapist for 15 years both in the UK and Denmark before studying for an MA and currently a PhD in Politics and Human Rights. Having a clinical background has provided a practical insight and understanding of illness and the dying process whilst academic study has enabled her to see the wider social, cultural and political issues surrounding death and dying.

 "Considering the pace of life and increasing individualism in our modern society, I feel that the Death Café makes a valuable contribution to demystifying some of the taboos surrounding death and dying. In addition, speaking about personal concerns regarding the end of life within a safe and respectful environment provides a level of intimacy, openness and honesty which is perhaps lacking in our community and networks."

 

Philomena Corrigan volunteers as a Marie Curie helper. This involves befriending clients with a life-limiting illness during the final months of their lives. She is also completing her training to become an End-of-Life-Doula. This role is similar to that of a Childbirth Doula who supports women at the beginning of a life. An EOL Doula is an ‘amicus mortis’ or friend at death. This new role is part of a ‘compassionate communities’ approach, that sees the end of life as everyone’s concern. 

Philomena retired last year, after forty odd years as a nurse practitioner and teacher. She thinks that facing the reality of death is a great motivator for appreciating life, for living every day with gratitude. For this, and other reasons, Philomena describes herself as a ‘death missionary’. She will raise the subject of death and dying in polite company and discuss it with anyone who shows an interest!

 

We have expanded our team of facilitators!

We welcome Salli Lovett, (ex-nurse, researcher and carer, Death Café host in Hitchin);

Heidi Twelvetrees (psychotherapist);

Bernie Folan (scholarly communications consultant);

 

Caroline Dent (designer and Death Doula).

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