Hosted by Josefine Speyer

This Death Cafe has taken place

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About this Death Cafe

We are fully booked for our Death Cafe upstairs, but rather than turning people away, here is an idea we will try this month. If it works we will continue with it.

Ask your name to be put on the mailing list to receive invites when bookings open for the next (21st) Death Cafe (on 27 April).

No bookings will be accepted until then.

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.

Josefine is supported by a team of facilitators: 

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!

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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