The Spirit Vessel Professionals Perspectives in Deathcare series aims to help bring awareness, acceptance, and normalization to death and the grieving process. Throughout this series, we interview professionals of all types in the deathcare and emotional wellness space including hospice nurses, grief counselors and coaches, death doulas, funeral directors, life insurance agents, celebrants, alternative disposition advocates, and social workers just to name a few.
In this interview we speak with Lisa Pahl, who is a hospice social worker, ER crisis interventionist, and co-creator of The Death Deck.
Lisa has been in the end-of-life space for about 15 years working primarily in hospice and 8 years working in emergency medicine. Since obtaining her Master’s in Social Work from The University of Michigan, she’s embraced a challenging, but equally rewarding, career working within the mental health industry, in both the trenches of ER and within her true passion working in hospice.
Her goal is to help people cope with illness, dying and grief. With a passionate belief that peace at the end begins with meaningful conversations over time, she feels the more we can engage in talking about this difficult subject, the more prepared and ultimately comforted we will be when we reach the end of life. This belief led Lisa to be the co-creator of the Death Deck, a new party game that lets you explore a topic we’re all obsessed with but often afraid to discuss.
In this conversation we discuss:
- Lisa’s background in both emergency medicine and hospice care, and why she loves offering services in both areas.
- How Lisa met her business partner Lori and how they came up with the idea for the Death Deck.
- How they worked together to develop the Death Deck.
- The most common topics that she educates her hospice clients on.
- How she helps people feel more prepared and families more comfortable about death so that it can be an overall calmer, more educated experience for the person, the family, and the grief process of those involved.
- Her experience using ritual and ceremony for her clients.
- The impact the Death Deck has had on her son, his friends, and people all over the world.
- Their plans for future card decks and what she’s excited about and inspired by in the industry!
LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION HERE
Please leave us a comment below, and let us know your thoughts on today’s video!
If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it on your favorite social media platform.