Jan Parker – or JP – blogs for us this week about the death workshops she is running this Autumn.

“I’ve been running death workshops – getting small groups of people together to explore death – since 2002. My workshop runs for two days (10am-5pm) and we come at it from all sorts of angles.

“I help people find their own truths and make their own relationship with this pesky issue.

“Two days may sound like a long time but it whizzes by – death is a huge subject. I do just one session on the practicals (wills, funerals, advanced directives). They’re important, of course, but there’s a lot more to death than a funeral and the will.

“Hundreds must have done this workshop with me by now. People come for all sorts of reasons. Some people come to help them deal with a personal bereavement, others to help a bereaved friend better. Some come because a loved one is dying and they feel out of their depth. Others come because a death has helped them realise they’re completely unprepared for their own death.

“We really are all in this one together – this death business – and there’s an unfailing sense of support and solidarity from simply exploring death together in a group. Let’s face it – that’s still an unusual experience. There’s no pressure to share though. A lot can happen in two days.

Face your death

“Death workshops help people face their own deaths and learn how to help others with death. I joke they’re in training to become ‘death warriors’ and also help change our society’s culture around death and dying. Many people like that idea and I’m confident that that is what often happens afterwards. (If anyone knows where to get invisible capes from, please get in touch.)

Find more about the programme of workshops JP is running across the UK on our Events page.

Make sure you keep track of your own life and death – use our Life Planning Tools free.

See more about ‘Death and the only beauty that lasts’ on JP’s website.

“The only beauty that lasts is the beauty of the human heart.” Rumi