Life has a 100% mortality rate, and we’ve all seen what happens when people aren’t prepared. We can do better.
Organize your life, so your kids won’t have to.
Appoint a healthcare decision maker and clearly communicate what you want to happen if you become ill.
Document the care you want if you become unable to speak for yourself.
Organize your information, your paperwork and your things to make tough times as easy as possible for those you love.
Schedule a free consultation now to learn more about how Heartful Transitions can help you avoid the mistakes we’ve all seen so many others make.
✔️Save your adult children needless confusion and stress.
✔️Protect your family from conflict when they need each other most.
✔️Speak for yourself now, while you can, before it’s too late.
Less than 30% of U.S. adults have completed any end-of-life planning at all.
Even fewer of us have sufficiently organized our affairs and our lives to maximize everyone’s peace, time together and wellbeing when the worst happens.
“Thank you so much! I’ve always been disorganized, and I did not want my daughters to go through what I went through when my mom died. I know now that they won’t!” - Mary Catherine, 63
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.
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 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.
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”-Seneca
Peace of Mind Planning with Heartful Transitions is currently donation-based.
[Beginning June 1, 2026, our we will move from a donation model to a priced model: $360 for one person with an additional $180 for each additional person, up to 4 participants.]
At this time, our suggested donation for all three sessions is $240 for one client with an additional $120 for each additional client, up to 4 participants. (Working through this process with a small group of family or friends can be a meaningful and enriching experience.) This means that a couple or other duo could complete the process for $360 (a total cost of $180 each), while a family or friend group could complete the Peace of Mind planning process for $600 (or $150 each).
Three 60-90 minute sessions, in person or virtual. (Efficient plan: first session in-person, following sessions virtual.)
Weekly coaching calls (15-20 minutes) available between each session and after the third session.
Binders, proprietary templates, guides, and accompanying care partner folders included. (Some binder components are available freely to the public, and there is no cost for these materials.)
Clients with serious illness or a terminal diagnosis may create a Peace of Mind Plan on a donation basis or at no cost, if needed, simply by requesting this accommodation. (This will remain in effect after we move out of the donation model.)
People who wish to sponsor all or part of the suggested donation for others are welcome to discuss this with us.
“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, RN…
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 Confusion & Conflict When Your Family Need Each Other Most
The Peace of Mind Plan was created in response to a reality I have witnessed repeatedly, 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
“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.
If you would like more information, or if you are ready to set an appointment, please complete this contact form.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” - C.S. Lewis
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.
"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
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.