I’m Shelby Yaffe!

Death Companion, Caregiver, and End-of-Life Planner in Arvada, Colorado

I love providing care and companionship to my clients.

I started caregiving as a profession in 2013.

I believe that my calling is to care for others and be of service to the sick, the dying, and their loved ones.

As a CNA, I saw a huge problem with how the healthcare system treats death. I know that we don’t talk about death enough in the US. So many people who are dying are afraid to talk about their feelings and fears! So many families of patients who have received a terminal diagnosis have a hard time accepting that death is inevitable in their situation.

I saw terminal patients feel like they couldn’t ask questions about their coming death. Their families didn’t want to discuss it with them. Their care teams at the hospital were afraid of being honest about how close they were.

I saw my patients who needed to have someone to talk to, someone who was open to hearing anything they had to say. Some patients weren’t religious and didn’t want to speak to a chaplain, but they still needed to process what death meant to them, what they were afraid of, where they might be going, and how they felt about leaving their life behind.

I heard about Death Midwifery and immediately knew that this was what I was meant to do.

I graduated from Going With Grace as a Certified Death Doula and End-of-Life Planner in January of 2023. I planned my own funeral during that course, filled out my own Living Will, and meditated on the meaning of my own death that will inevitably come someday! I have dealt with my fears and questions about death so that I can help others do the same.

FAQs

  • I work with clients of any faith or no faith at all. I am a very spiritual and open-minded person! I have been educated in Jewish funeral customs and am a Patrilineal Jew, but I was raised Protestant and currently practicing some folk Catholicism. I never judge or push anyone on their beliefs about death or what comes after.

  • I became a Certified Nursing Assistant in the state of Colorado in 2013. As a Death Companion, I work as a caregiver and companion and do not work under my CNA license.

    I became a Certified Death Doula and End-of-Life Planner in January of 2023. I graduated from a program called Going With Grace. Going With Grace’s curriculum is the standard for NEDA, the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance. I have also been educated in the nursing environment on various topics pertinent to Hospice and Palliative care.

  • My services are available to anyone and everyone, regardless of their income or the resources they have access to, and I want to keep it that way! I want to be paid an hourly fee that my client and I agree on, on a case-by-case basis. I want you to pay me at the intersection of what you are able to pay and what you think the service is worth.

  • I am not authorized to give legal advice or medical care.

    I will always refer legal questions to your chosen Estate Planner or other attorney. I will always refer medical questions to your doctor(s).

    I operate as a companion and caregiver. I am here to be a source of emotional, spiritual, and social support.