Loving, Dying, and Letting Go
What does it mean to love?
What does it mean to die?
And how can we let go?
These three questions form the basis of the 5-hour Loving, Dying, and Letting Go course originally designed by Institute founder Amy Wright Glenn and now taught by Loving, Dying, and Letting Go certified Institute Teachers.
In this workshop, participants are asked to engage in deep personal reflection on three key themes/ areas of inquiry. These themes are: What does it means to love? What does it mean to die, and What does it mean to let go? Participants are encouraged to work with the energy of fear, transform the energies of hurt, and move forward in loving, dying, and letting go with great courage.
All participants are required to read Holding Space so they can more deeply apply the questions outlined above to their own life journeys. To receive a certificate of completion, participants must successfully complete the 5-hour workshop.
Three Key Themes
What does it mean to love? How is attachment formed? What are the various types of love known in human experience? How do you love? Who do you love?
What does it mean to die? How do various world traditions approach the topic of dying? When have you known death? What are your hopes and fears?
What does it mean to let go? What does it mean to hold space for loss? How do you work with the energies of fear? How can we embody healthy attachment and reconciliation to loss? What do we hold on to as we let go?
Loving, Dying, and Letting Go
5-hour Online Workshop
$90 USD
*Scholarships available
This 5-hour workshop is based upon Amy Wright Glenn’s book Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go ~ published by Parallax Press. The workshop is taught both in-person and online. Please note participants register individually with the teacher that is teaching their chosen workshop based upon the calendar below.
*Currently, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the course is taught online only by Institute teachers in accordance to the calendar listed below.
May 2021
May 6 ~ Join Institute teacher Trish Rux for a 5-hour, online Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop.
The five-hour course will be taught in one session beginning at 10am EST.
To register
May 20 and 27 ~ Join Institute teacher Jessica Kilbourn for a 5-hour, online Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop.
The five-hour course will be split into two sections beginning at 1pm EST.
To register, contact Jessica: jkilbourn@emich.edu
Watch Jess Kilbourn’s 5 minute video about the significance of this course
as a “journey of contemplation and curiosity.”
July 2021
July 10 ~ Join Institute teacher Dawn Welburn, for a 5-hour, online Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop.
The five-hour course will be offered in one session from 10am to 3pm CST.
To register, contact Dawn: dawnwelburn@gmail.com
September 2021
September 21 & 28 ~ Join Institute teacher Danielle Pacific, for a 5-hour, online Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop.
The five-hour course will be offered in two sessions beginning at 4pm Hawaii Standard Time (7pm PST, 10pm EST)
To register, contact Danielle: danielle.pacific@gmail.com
October 2021
October 19, 26th & November 2 ~ Join Institute teacher Dawn Welburn, for a 5-hour, online Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop. The five-hour course will be offered in three sections from 7-8:45pm CST.
To register, contact Dawn: dawnwelburn@gmail.com
Loving, Dying, and Letting Go Teachers

Erin Collins, RN BSN CHPN is a certified hospice and palliative care nurse with 14 years of experience in hospice and adult and pediatric oncology. She is the founder of The Peaceful Presence Project, a non-profit organization with a mission to reimagine the way communities talk about, plan for and experience the end of life. She has been a yoga practitioner for 25 years, and has been teaching yoga as the cycle of life and death for 12 years. Erin is also trained as an end-of-life doula, an advance care planning educator and is pursuing a masters degree in nursing education. She educates and empowers families to be present with their loved ones in the final stage of life, however long that may be, and believes that by talking about and planning for death with our loved ones, we can ease much of the suffering that arises at the end of life. Learn more.
Adriane Weller holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree, Minor in Arts from McGill University. She is a certified Life Coach, Life-Cycle Celebrant, Pregnancy Loss Doula, Yoga Teacher, Postpartum Professional, and passionate community educator. Through the Institute for the Study of Birth Breath and Death Adriane is certified as a teacher of Loving, Dying, and Letting Go, and a facilitator of Pregnancy Loss Circles of Support. She has traversed much terrain, both exterior and interior to herself, and is dedicated to bringing out and responding to the truth and authenticity of all she meets. As a trained End of Life Doula Adriane companions others through illness, dying, death and bereavement, while offering services and guidance in Advance Care Planning, End of Life Planning, Family-Led Death Care and Natural Burial. She is passionate about tending to fear and confusion around dying and death and replacing it with education and awareness to unearth more autonomous, meaningful and resonant choices in all moments and thresholds of life.
Lori Benson Adams holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education, is a certified Life Design coach, and a yoga and mindful meditation teacher. As the founder of Soulprints , Lori helps others in living a life of intentionality, meaning and authenticity. With over 35 years as an educator of both children and adults, Lori utilizes interactive strategies, mindfulness tools, and creative personal and group engagement to lead Loving, Dying and Letting Go courses. She is grateful to the work of Amy Wright Glenn, who’s book Holding Space: Loving, Dying and Letting Go transformed her own personal journey of saying goodbye to a loved one. Lori offers one-on-one coaching support and courses on Life-Design Journaling, Mindful Meditation and Unearthing Your Soulprint. When not teaching (but always learning!) Lori works as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), serving children who have been abused or neglected. She lives with her husband and two pups on a farm. Learn more here.


Danielle Pacific holds a BS in Biology, became a Manual Therapist shortly after and remains fascinated with anatomy and movement. She trained in the Hatha style of Yoga and became a Birth Doula with ToLabor, and recently was trained by Bodhi be and INELDA as an End-of-Life Doula. She currently lives in Hawaii, and is passionate about learning indigenous Hawaiian culture and brings this information into Loving, Dying and Letting go. She holds Women’s Grief Groups and One-on-One Grief Sessions, mostly via zoom during this pandemic. Danielle values the lessons Amy shares about Holding Space and Companioning others , and has found her generosity and kindness are ever evolving as her work deepens. Learn more.
Kristen Avonti holds a B.A. from Hampshire College wherein she studied psychology and social work. She has a background in herbalism, doula work, supporting birthing families, and end of life doula care. She has a deep passion for the natural world and loves growing plants for food and medicine. Kristen is a “midwife for the soul” who has dedicated her life to tending our most vulnerable and tender thresholds of growth, transformation, grief, and loss. As a Holding Space Consultant and Transformational Life Coach, Kristen supports individuals in navigating the wilderness of our personal journeys, stepping through our thresholds of transformation, and finding our meaning making through the telling of our stories. In addition to offering Holding Space Consultations, Kristen is also a teacher of the Loving, Dying, and Letting Go workshop. Kristen’s passion lies in working with folks who are navigating the impacts of trauma in their lives, and those who are in the transformative process of discovering their authenticity and truth. Kristen’s approach to care is founded on a belief in the sacredness and power of our stories and the ways in which they give us meaning and a sense of place within our lives. Kristen’s deeply attuned presence and calm, caring authenticity invite a courageous bravery to rumble with our stories, get to know our hungry ghosts, and venture into the meaning making that occurs when we are lovingly held in our most vulnerable truths and stories.
Trish Rux is Registered Nurse and holds a BA degree in Organizational Management and Communications from Concordia University. She is certified as a Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse with over eight years of experience in an inpatient hospice unit caring for people and their families during active dying. She is a certified end-of-life doula specializing in end-of-life care planning, vigil, and bereavement. She is faculty in a program for end-of-life doulas, coaches, and educators. Trish also teaches focused awareness meditation and mindfulness and uses those practices in her daily life. Trish is a member of the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death and offers the Institute Course; Loving, Dying, and Letting Go to groups online. When she is not exploring ways to normalize talking about death she enjoys playing with her grandchildren, gardening, and reading.


“I am a doula. I am also a hospital chaplain. In holding space for birthing and dying, I’ve come to see one thing clearly. Standing with an open heart in the presence of birth is very much like standing with an open heart in the presence of death.”
~ Amy Wright Glenn