What is a Death Café?

I’m honored to be quoted in the Considerable.com article, How to die the way you want, by Randi Hutter Epstein. What is a death café, you ask? Death Cafés are informal gatherings where people are finding comfort in “tackling the tough questions over a cup of tea or coffee.”

Talking with strangers, hosts say, is often an easier way to broach the topic before launching a conversation about death with loved ones.

Of the many ways we can begin to talk about death, Death Cafés offer the lightest touch and some of the biggest surprises. In the Cafés I’ve facilitated, people are always amazed by how much we laugh, and how many fascinating things they end up learning. It can be extremely cathartic.

Isn’t talking about death morbid?

Not if you do it right. There are a lot of ways to open the door for understanding and acceptance that invite curiosity rather than dread. The topics change in every group, depending on who’s there and what’s going on with them. Death Cafés can change the way you approach death, and therefore the way you live, in a profound and wonderful way. No matter where you are, visit deathcafe.com, and find a group near you. 

Stay tuned Coloradans… we’ll be starting another Death Café in Longmont, CO the spring of 2019.

Click to read the full article, by Randi Hutter Epstein, published January 30, 2019. Considerable. com is a new media brand for people who are “redefining what it means to grow older, and are looking forward to what’s next.”

Kim Mooney, certified Thanatologist, and founder of Practically Dying, has won national awards for innovative approaches to death support and education, most recently the international Association of Death Education and Counseling’s 2018 Community Educator award.

Reach out to Kim to schedule a private consultation or workshop. She is also launching an interactive Desktop Lunch & Learn Series, geared toward professionals who support others in grief – details will be available on Practically Dying’s website soon.

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