Qualifications
Soul Midwife Practitioner & Tender Loving Care (TLC) End of Life Care Trainer.
Diploma in Clinical Aromatherapy & Essential Oil Science.
Jing Method – Hot & Cold Stones.
Jing Method – Advanced Clinical Massage.
Diploma in Oncology Massage.
Diploma in Manual Lymphatic Drainage, Warm Bamboo Massage. Myofascial Release, Natural Lift Facial Massage, Pregnancy Massage.
Sound Healing Practitioner – Tuning Forks For Muscles.
Gua Sha Facial and Body massage.
Diploma in Hopi Ear Candling/Thermo Auricular.
Usui Reiki Level 1 & 2 & Master / Teacher. Jikiden Reiki Shoden Level 1 & Okuden Level 2.
End-of-Life Care Level 2.
Social Work Practitioner DipSW/DipHE , BA(Hons),
Graduate Diploma in Approved Social Work Practice.
Bio
Dionne Henry is a Soul Midwife Practitioner which is part of a pioneering movement in holistic and spiritual palliative care for those people whose lives are coming to an end. As a soul midwife Dionne lovingly assists and accompanies a dying person on their journey, and can provide her services within a home, hospital or hospice. She was formerly a psychiatric social worker for many years and completed her Soul Midwifery training at the Soul Midwives School in 2018.
She then completed an accredited Tender Loving Care (TLC) End of Life Care training course developed by Felicity Warner, the founder of the Soul Midwife Movement. Prior to this however Dionne also gained a Diploma in Clinical Aromatherapy and Essential Oil Science with Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic School of Natural Health where she has been a mentor for their aromatherapy students for a number of years. Dionne also practices other complementary therapies.
Being a Soul Midwife means being a compassionate companion to support people through the process of dying, and this has necessitated the range of knowledge, new skills and experience Dionne had acquired over many years. She came into the profession of soul midwifery as a result of a long personal and professional journey, having like many others experienced the death of friends and close relatives and also in her previous profession where many deaths occurred for many reasons.
Dionne passionately believes that anybody who is facing the end of their life can benefit from the services of a soul midwife. They regard every dying person as if he, or she, is the most important person in the world. Her role is non-medical and is non-denominational in pastoral support, encouraging deep conversation, with love and dignity. Her work may begin from the point of diagnosis and continue until the final day of life, with encouragement and support for living life fully, until the end. Dionne’s energy lies in helping to transform the personal and collective experiences of dying and living within the community, by helping anyone facing the end of life to experience a tender, peaceful and conscious death which has been the most cherished and rewarding aspects of her work – which she refers to as a: “Sacred Profession.” She is encouraged by the growing awareness in the public domain that is gaining momentum now, that speaking about Death is no longer a taboo subject but on the contrary is a rational and healthy thing to do
Regarding it as a privilege and an honour to be invited to be alongside people at the end of their life-journey, Dionne recognises that sadly, with the best will in the world, busy clinical staff do not always have the time to spend with the dying person and so the emphasis is also about how she can employ her time supporting those who have little time i.e. other professionals who are involved with the dying person at whatever level.
About Me
I am in my mid-life and recognise that as I get older and experiencing the menopause, death inevitably becomes a more common feature of my life. ‘We all die. But there are good deaths, and not such good deaths. Most of us hope to die, pain free, at home, with our loved ones around us, given the choice. The reality is though that not many of us actually achieve this. Most modern deaths are, at best, efficient but clinical, institutionalised, functional and soul-less.’ My pride in being an End -Of-Life Practitioner is to try to ensure that death is a dignified and peaceful experience.
I am inspired by those who note the similarities with birth midwives: if a person that we know has given birth, the likelihood is that we or they would never forget the midwife. They are the reassuring professionals a person wants to cling to, who knew the answers to questions, and who encourages, guides and comforts the one they are caring for. Both kinds of midwives assist the person: giving birth is hard work and dying is hard work too!
Soul midwives acknowledge this in the many ways they offer support. Whilst the job of helping deliver a baby is relatively easy to envisage, it’s harder to imagine what might be involved in delivering “souls” during the end-of-life process. In my role I am reminded that in many traditional cultures around the world, death has always been regarded as an important rite of passage, an initiation, a journey across a spiritual threshold. Being a modern Soul Midwife means myself and others in this work can draw on these ancient skills and traditions, applying them to our modern world and using them to ease the passage of those who are dying.
We may all be Soul Midwives at heart, but it takes training and dedication to become one. My experience of my training was not only to learn in a conventional sense, but it also inspired
(literally breathed life into me) and prepared me in a reflective way, for the essential work of caring for the dying, which is a deeper process.
“Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening, nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
