Norman / Moore / Oklahoma City / Surrounding Areas / Person-to-Person (with Phone Support)
What if could not communicate your wishes or manage your life responsibilities - for a day, a week, a month, or ever again?
Avoid confusion and conflict when the unexpected or unwanted happens, by organizing and communicating what will matter most when life presents you with the unexpected.
A Peace of Mind Plan™ will help you…
1) Organize your advance directives and consents in a readily accessible manner for both you and your healthcare proxy.
(You can do this with documents you have prepared using state-sanctioned forms - or with documents you create with an attorney.)
2) Complete other worksheets and communication tools that could empower your loved ones, your healthcare team and others to carry out your wishes and intentions - especially in circumstances not addressed in your standard directives and consents.
3) More fully communicate your wishes for the medical care, comfort care, and heart/soul care you would like to receive if you are seriously ill, injured or dying - as well as what you wish or hope for your caregivers and others in such a situation.
4) Simplify access to information and digital resources others would need to manage your life responsibilities in a rapidly accessible way. (Examples: child and/or pet care needs, your most important passwords, emergency financial information/access, insurance information, and more)
5) Describe your hopes and intentions for care and comfort if your health trajectory takes you into common scenarios (long-term or memory care, end-of-life care at home, etc.).
6) Share your wishes for the last days and hours of your life, for what will happen with your body after death, how you want to be remembered, and for how you would like your life to be memorialized.
7) Communicate other, heartful information about your life, your legacy, your values and hopes, with those you love.
Creating a Peace of Mind Plan with Heartful Transitions is a simple process: 2-3 90-minute workshopping sessions with weekly phone coaching and support (15 - 20 minutes) for 30 days after the first session.
Keep reading to learn more.
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”-Seneca
The Peace of Mind Plan Works for Real People
The Peace of Mind planning process helps people organize their advance care documents, clarify and communicate their care values and priorities, and simplify access to critical “life admin” information - so those they trust will have what they need when they need it most. Our process is personal - not digital or virtual - and it is designed to work with the way we, as busy and “imperfect” humans, handle matters in real life. Our process is simplified, guided, emotionally and energetically “bounded,” carried out with compassion and unconditional positive regard - and it can be completed in a time-efficient manner and updated easily and routinely, as you make it your own over weeks, months and years.
“I have an advance directive, not because I have a serious illness, but because I have a family.” - Ira Byock, MD
About the Peace of Mind Plan Coordinator, Michelle Stewart, MS, M.Ed…
Michelle Stewart is an end-of-life doula, family caregiver (of decades), and certified life planning specialist with the International Doula Life Movement. She is also a registered nurse, bringing experience and insight gained through more than 10 years in the healthcare system to this work, though she does not serve Heartful Transitions clients in a clinical role.
If you work with Michelle to create a Peace of Mind Plan, she will sit down with you and walk through each section of the binder-based system, designed to help you clarify your healthcare values and goals, document your medical care wishes, organize your critical information, and make the right choices for you, when it comes to memorial and legacy matters.
Please Note!
Heartful Transitions provides educational, facilitative and organizational support only. We do not offer legal, medical, nursing, psychotherapy, or financial advice or services. Clients and others who utilize our resources are encouraged to consult licensed professionals for guidance specific to their circumstances, whenever possible.
Prevent Conflict When Your Family Need Each Other Most
The Peace of Mind Plan was created in response to a reality I have witnessed repeated, both personally and professionally: during moments of serious illness, illness or worse, families are often overwhelmed not only by fear or grief, but by preventable confusion that creates serious conflict.
Important documents cannot be found - or were never created in the first place. Critical information needed to take care of business and personal responsibilities is missing. Decisions must be made under pressure without guidance, clarity, or confidence. The resulting anxiety and confusion can steal precious time and peace of mind from people who need to be together, united, loving each other through a painful experience.
I have personally witnessed at least a dozen families torn apart by conflict during a medical crisis or end-of-life experience — not because the family members did not love one another, but because they were not on the same page about what their loved one would want in the situation. Often, one family member remembers one conversation one way, another remembers it differently or recalls an entirely different conversation - and there is no reliable reference point to resolve those differences. Lasting rifts, or even permanent estrangement, are not uncommon in this scenario. This is a widespread issue in our culture, and it is heartbreaking precisely because so much of it is avoidable.
Complete advance life planning, clearly communicated to loved ones, is the best protection possible for the peace of mind that protects relationship peace when it matters most.
-Michelle
“It’s good to do uncomfortable things. It’s weight training for life.”-Anne Lamott
Advance Life Planning & Attorney Assistance vs "DIY”
Retaining legal counsel is “the gold standard” for completing DPOAs, wills and other sensitive estate-planning documents. We highly recommend you work with an attorney to assist you with these important instruments if at all possible.
Still, the truth is, many individuals simply cannot afford to retain an attorney - at least, not in a timely manner. (The funds are just not available, in the now.)
If retaining an attorney is truly not an option for you at this time, you may consider utilizing state-created documents and instruments available from other reputable sources, such as those provided by established nonprofits and respected organizations like Trust & Will (which provides you an opportunity to have your documents reviewed by an attorney licensed in your state at a reasonable cost), and others.
This “DIY” (bridge) option, carried out with care and thought, may be preferable to the “waiting until we can pay for an attorney” option, which has caused so many people so much unnecessary stress, conflict and heartache.
Alternatively, you may be able to do as much as you can on your own, then pay an attorney for a modest amount of consulting time for a review and guidance, making adjustments based on their recommendations..
Whatever you choose to do, you can move forward with a Peace of Mind Plan now.
When we help you organize your Peace of Mind Plan, we will sort these critical documents into your binder, whether they are attorney-assisted, attorney-reviewed, or created on your own using available “DIY” resources. You can easily replace them later with updated and/or attorney=assisted documents, simply by switching them out.
“We are all just walking each other home.” - Baba Ram Dass
The Peace of Mind Plan is designed to help people organize for unexpected or serious health events, so they can minimize anxiety, confusion and conflict and maximize precious time, energy and family unity - when it matters most.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” - C.S. Lewis
If you would like more information, or if you are ready to set an appointment, please complete this contact form.
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." —Winnie the Pooh
What is an End-of-Life Doula?
An end-of-life doula (sometimes called a "death doula") is a holistic care practitioner specializing in the end of life. We help people prepare for death and journey through their dying experience with the most peace, comfort and connection possible, given their unique situation.
This can include: providing physical/comfort care and teaching caregivers how to keep the dying person clean and comfortable, offering referrals and connecting families with important resources, assisting with advance directives, organizing care schedules, advocating for the client and/or family - and many other services - all based around the unique needs of the client and their circle of care.
We bring peace into the room. We look for unmet needs and work to find ways to meet them, "walk alongside" and act as a sacred witness, support person and safe place for all involved.
What birth doulas do for those welcoming new life, we do for those leaving this life - and for those they love.
Note from Michelle: At this time, I focus my doula practice on helping families prepare for serious illness, injury and the end of life before the worst happens, as well as helping families organize care for loved ones with calm and maximum family cohesion.
Diversity & Inclusivity
Heartful Transitions does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, family design, political affiliation, or military status.