Meet Rachael: Death Doula & Restorative Yoga Teacher
Welcome to a space where presence meets transformation.
We're honored to introduce you to Rachael, a guide who walks between worlds—holding space for both the living and the dying, for stillness and transformation, for grief and reverence. Her journey has shaped a practice that invites us all to embrace the full spectrum of our human experience with tenderness and courage.
Walking the Path of the Death Doula
In 2020, Rachael embraced the path of the death doula, taking time away from the studio to tend to her husband with deep presence and love in his final season of life. After journeying four years in the death portal, she is beginning to slowly transition back into the physical space of community here at Temple Yoga.
Following her experience with death, she now guides others in rooting with presence, trusting their inner knowing, and embracing the full emotional spectrum with reverence.
A Practice Rooted in Presence
Rachael is a 500hr certified yoga instructor specializing in restorative practices. Her classes are an invitation to explore the sensations of your body, cultivate a deeper sense of presence, and gently acknowledge and accept your current experience. She teaches community workshops in art meditation, emphasizing the spiritual aspects of death, mindfulness, and creative reflection. Her intention is to guide others to connect with the themes of mortality, stillness, and transformation through intuitive, hands-on practices.
Upcoming Workshops with Rachael
Mala Workshop
October 11, 2025 | 1-5pm
Space is limited to 10 participants. All materials included.
Creating Your Sacred Circle: The Mālā as Mirror
Join Rachael for a four-hour workshop where you'll mindfully knot your own mālā meditation garland. Rooted in the wisdom of the current season, this gathering explores how to create with intention, embrace the sacred rhythm of letting go, and how to meditate with your beads.
Together, we will reflect on how the mālā is more than a string of beads—it is a sacred circle that mirrors the natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth. As we craft our own mālā meditation beads, we'll explore the meaning behind its form and rhythm: how each bead can represent a moment in time, a breath, or a step along the path of letting go and returning.
The Beads
We'll look at the guru bead—the large, anchoring bead—as a symbol of the soul, the source, or stillness beyond life and death. The act of circling the mālā in meditation becomes a practice of honoring the ongoing cycle of beginnings and endings—a spiritual reminder that all things rise, fall, and return.
We'll also work with Golden Tiger's Eye, a powerful stone to work with in the season of autumn, when nature begins to turn inward, release, and prepare for stillness. Spiritually, it offers grounding, clarity, and courage - qualities that support the inward journey and the transition as we begin to walk the middle path as light gives way to shadow. As you slow down in autumn and tune into subtle shifts within and around you, Tiger's eye can act as a guide, helping you trust what you feel and see beneath the surface.
A Ritual Tool for Impermanence
Through reflection, gentle discussion, and hands-on creation, we'll learn how the mala can become a ritual tool for staying present with impermanence, for grieving and releasing, and for finding peace in the endless turning of the wheel.
Register for Rachael's Mala Workshop here
Living Funeral Ceremony
November 1, 2025| 1-3pm
Turning Toward Mortality
The ceremony is a 2-hour experience that focuses on turning towards one's own mortality. Participants are faced with their own memorial, participate in a writing exercise, and then are led through a death visualization. The Living Funeral offers a transformative and cathartic experience, helping individuals cultivate a deeper sense of mindfulness, acceptance, and appreciation for life's beauty and transience. Death meditation underscores the importance of living fully in the present moment.
Who This Ceremony Is For
A living funeral is for anyone prepared to experience an exercise in confronting their own mortality. It is an intensely personal and potentially challenging event intended to give the participant a clear view of their life as a whole.
Register for Rachael's Living Funeral Ceremony here
These offerings are invitations to pause, to feel, and to remember what matters most.
We hope you'll join Rachael in this sacred work of turning toward life by turning toward death—of finding presence in impermanence, and peace in the endless cycle of letting go and beginning again. Whether you're drawn to the meditative craft of mala making or ready to face your own mortality with open eyes, there is a place for you here at Temple Yoga.
