CHRISTY BRAUN
Death doula, educator, and host of the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B. Founder of Compass Doula Academy and the Compass Doula Collective.
Death is inevitable. Chaos is optional.
AT A GLANCE
Fast Facts
Death doula, educator, and end-of-life practitioner
Founder, Compass Doula Academy & the Compass Doula Collective
Host, Dying to Ask with Christy B. podcast
Community Director and Educational Partner, Profitable Pathways Business Accelerator for Doulas
M.S. in Educational Design and Adult Learning Models
Reiki Master
Member Trainer, National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA)
Supports VSED and MAiD
In-person death doula across Northern California, nationwide as a tele-doula
Present from pre planning through active dying
Death Café host in Placer County, CA
Affirming care for LGBTQIA+ individuals and families
Reads and answers every email herself. No team, no bots.
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Links
Website: https://www.askchristyb.com
Book a call: https://tidycal.com/askchristyb
Podcast (Dying to Ask with Christy B.): https://open.spotify.com/show/033hP7XU8NMJ3aic5mLFqr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/askchristyb
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/askchristyb/
Email: christy@christybraun.com
Foundations Death Doula Course - https://go.compassdoulaacademy.com/live-online-doula-training-cohort
Profitable Pathways Death Doula Business Accelerator - https://go.compassdoulaacademy.com/enroll-fast-action
July 2026 Continuing Education Course - The First Call: Turning Consults Into Contracts - https://go.compassdoulaacademy.com/webinar-registration-page
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Bios
Grab whichever length fits. Everything below is ready to use as written.
One-liner
Christy Braun is a death doula, educator, and host of the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B., and the founder of Compass Doula Academy.
Short bio
Christy Braun is a death doula, educator, and host of the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B. She founded Compass Doula Academy and the Compass Doula Collective, and she works with the dying and their families in person across Northern California and nationwide as a tele-doula. Her philosophy: death is inevitable, chaos is optional.
Long bio
Christy Braun is a death doula, educator, and end-of-life practitioner based in Placer County, California. She founded Compass Doula Academy, where she trains people to sit with the dying and their families, and the Compass Doula Collective, the graduate community and referral network that grew out of it. She hosts the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B.
Christy came to this work after two decades in corporate training and consulting. A single afternoon at someone's bedside changed her mind about what death could be: not only loss, but presence, connection, and the chance for a real goodbye. She has been in the room through active dying and has witnessed medical aid in dying. She says there are no living experts on death, and she does not position herself as one. Her posture is that of the trusted guide who lays out the options, not the authority who has closed the question.
Her services include end-of-life planning, vigil planning, legacy work, grief coaching, and coordination with hospice teams, offered in person across Northern California and nationwide as a tele-doula. She offers affirming care for LGBTQIA+ individuals and families. She hosts Death Cafe gatherings in Placer County, and she reads and answers every email herself.
Christy holds an M.S., is a Reiki Master, and is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA). Her philosophy is simple: death is inevitable, chaos is optional, and presence matters more than perfection.
Curiosity bio
Some people talk about walking between worlds but today’s guest speaker lives there. Christy Braun is known as The Mary Poppins of Death: a gentle guide with a bottomless bag of wisdom, presence, and practical magic for those facing life’s final transition. Before she stepped into this sacred work, Christy was navigating the high seas of corporate risk management—until a deeper calling led her to trade rules and regulations for saltwater and literally set sail into the unknown for 6 years aboard her floating home. She’s survived storms at sea, won a ballroom dance competition, built homes on wheels, and leapt from perfectly good planes. Yet her greatest act of courage might just be the way she meets death: with grace, humor, and a fierce kind of love. Today, she helps the dying (and those who love them) feel less alone, less afraid, and more alive in the face of the one true counterpoint to life.
Spoken intro (read aloud on air or on stage)
Christy Braun is a death doula, educator, and end-of-life practitioner based in Placer County, California. She founded Compass Doula Academy, where she trains people to sit with the dying and their families, and the Compass Doula Collective, the graduate community and referral network that grew out of it. She hosts the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B.
Christy came to this work after two decades in corporate training and consulting. A single afternoon at someone's bedside changed her mind about what death could be: not only loss, but presence, connection, and the chance for a real goodbye. She has been in the room through active dying and has witnessed medical aid in dying. She says there are no living experts on death, and she does not position herself as one. Her posture is the trusted guide who lays out the options, not the authority who has closed the question.
Her services include end-of-life planning, vigil planning, legacy work, grief coaching, and coordination with hospice teams, offered in person across Northern California and nationwide as a tele-doula. She offers affirming care for LGBTQIA+ individuals and families. She hosts Death Cafe gatherings in Placer County, and she reads and answers every email herself.
Christy holds an M.S., is a Reiki Master, and is a member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA). Her philosophy is simple: death is inevitable, chaos is optional, and presence matters more than perfection.
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Boilerplate
About Christy
Christy Braun is a death doula and educator, host of the podcast Dying to Ask with Christy B., and the founder of Compass Doula Academy and the Compass Doula Collective. She works with the dying and their families across Northern California and nationwide, and she trains the next generation of death doulas. Her belief is that death deserves the same care and planning we give a birth.
About Compass Doula Academy
Compass Doula Academy is the death doula training and education arm founded by Christy Braun. Through its Death Doula Foundations Course, the Continuing Education Mastery Series, and the Profitable Pathways Business Accelerator, it prepares people to support the dying and their families with skill and steadiness, and to build sustainable practices without gatekeeping. Graduates join the Compass Doula Collective.
About the Compass Doula Collective
The Compass Doula Collective is the graduate community and referral network of Compass Doula Academy. It gives trained doulas ongoing mentorship, peer support, continuing education, and a way to be found by the families who need them. Christy built it as an inclusive, non-gatekeeping space for people doing this work.
About the podcast
Dying to Ask with Christy B. is Christy Braun's podcast about death, dying, and the things most people are afraid to say out loud. She opens the door on the questions we tend to keep shut, with plain talk, real stories from the bedside, and room for humor where it belongs.
WORK WITH CHRISTY
Programs
Death Doula Foundations Course
Compass Doula Academy's core training is offered in a variety of formats, including live, in-person cohorts and intensives, a live, online cohort, and a self-paced option, all of which prepare you to support the dying and their families from the first call through after-death care. It covers the dying process, communication and space holding, end-of-life planning, ritual and legacy work, grief support, and the practical work of building a practice. You finish with a certificate of completion and a place in the Compass Doula Collective.
Profitable Pathways Business Accelerator
The business accelerator for end-of-life doulas who want to turn the calling into a practice that pays. It covers marketing, client relationships, pricing, and the day-to-day of running a doula business, taught from real experience rather than theory, and built for people who would rather serve than sell. Includes courses, coaching, and community components.
Continuing Education Mastery Series
Compass Doula Academy's ongoing education for working doulas: focused, live sessions that go deep on one skill at a time, from difficult conversations to end-of-life planning. It is where practicing doulas keep sharpening the craft after their foundational training.
Compass Doula Collective
The graduate community and referral network for doulas trained through Compass Doula Academy. It offers mentorship, peer support, continuing education, and a way for families to find a trained doula near them. An inclusive, non-gatekeeping home for people doing this work.
For producers & hosts
Speaking & Interview Topics
What a death doula actually does (and what we don't). Clearing up the confusion between doula, hospice, and chaplain.
Plan for death the way we plan for birth. We hold the room for an arrival; the leaving deserves the same.
Medical aid in dying, plainly. What she has witnessed, and what families should understand.
"Progressing, not declining." Reframing anticipatory grief as movement toward, not failure.
How to be with someone who is dying without falling apart or reaching for a euphemism.
Caregiver burnout and the relentlessness of keeping watch. Permission, rhythm, and one doable thing.
What active dying really looks like, described without fear or mystery.
Building a death doula practice without gatekeeping. Real training, no pedestal.
Death Cafes: how to make it safe to talk about death at all.
Affirming end-of-life care for LGBTQIA+ families.
Why there are no living experts on death, and why that's the honest place to start.
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Suggested Interview Questions
Suggested Questions for Your Podcast
Thank you for considering me. Below is a working list you are welcome to pull from. Think of it as a map, not a script. We can follow whatever feels alive in the moment, and you do not need to use all of them. I have grouped them so they build as a story, starting light and moving into the deeper material, so the conversation has a natural arc for your listeners. It is your show - if you have different ideas let’s get to it!
Opening (setting the scene)
For anyone hearing about this work for the first time, what is a death doula in plain terms?
What does a day in your work actually look like? What do people picture wrong?
You host a podcast called Dying to Ask. What is the question people are most dying to ask but too afraid to say out loud?
The pivot (how I got here)
You spent more than twenty years in property and casualty insurance before this. How does a person go from risk management to sitting at deathbeds?
Was there a single moment that turned you toward this work, or was it a slow pull?
What did your people think when you told them you were becoming a death doula?
What did all those years in insurance actually give you that helps you now?
The heart of it (where it gets tender)
You say death is not a failure. What do you mean by that, and who needs to hear it most?
So much of our culture treats dying as a medical event to be managed. What are we missing when we do that?
You believe the end of life deserves as much care and intention as the beginning. What does that care look like when you are in the room?
What is something you have witnessed at a bedside that changed how you live?
What do dying people teach the rest of us, if we are willing to listen?
For the person listening (practical and human)
Someone listening right now has a parent who is declining and they do not know how to start the conversation. Where do you have them begin?
What is the difference between what a doula provides and what hospice or home health provides? Where do you fit?
What is the most common mistake families make in the last weeks, and how do they avoid it?
For the caregiver who is exhausted and grieving before anyone has even died, what do you want them to hear?
The close (the work and the ask)
You train other death doulas now through Compass Doula Training. What made you want to build that?
If someone feels called to this work, what would you tell them?
Where can people find you, follow your work, and reach out if something in this conversation stayed with them?
A note for you as the host: I am comfortable going wherever the conversation wants to go, including the hard and personal places. If you have a direction of your own, follow it. The best moments usually come from the question that was not on the list.
IN THEIR WORDS
Testimonials
“I want someone fearless and compassionate to walk with me as I plan my end of life. I also want someone to be able to laugh with me and empower me, that death can [be] brought out of the shadows and into the light where it should be. Christy is all that for me and more.”
“Christy is an excellent mentor and guide. Her depth of knowledge and expertise as a death doula has been invaluable. Christy is generous, compassionate and dependable.”
“The experience of training in Christy’s death doula class is amazing. She has a depth of knowledge and practical experience that provides a solid foundation for her students. If you are feeling called to do this sacred work, I highly recommend talking to Christy first.”
“This training provided me with meaningful tools and skills to better support individuals and families navigating end-of-life experiences. I leave with a stronger foundation for holding compassionate, non-judgmental space during one of life’s most significant moments.”
THE PODCAST
Dying to Ask with Christy B.
Honest, grounded conversations about death and dying, with no spiritual bypassing: hospice and palliative care, caregiver fatigue, advance directives, and what the dying process actually looks like. For guesting, cross-promotion, or booking Christy as a guest on your show, use the contact below.
PRESS ASSETS
Photos & Logos
Free to use in coverage of Christy Braun. Click to download.
