About Me | Mollie McElroy

Mollie McElroy (she/they)

grief counselor and death doula

Grief and death experiences have been rites of passage in my life.

Each has ushered me into a deeper appreciation for what it means to be alive.

I attended to the death and burial of my second mother, Linda, in 2013.

It was my first green burial experience and it awakened a fierce courage in me. I felt invited to turn and face her death, to look and touch and feel and breathe, in order to go through it.

I've been with my sister, Jocelyn, and the sudden loss of her beloved partner, Jonas Emmanuel Blanchet-Fricke, in March 2023. I've witnessed the depth of Jocelyn's love in the magnitude of her grief and it is my joy to remember Jonas and his bright, creative, loving spark.

I was with my dearest dog, Brighde, in the final moments of her earthly life. Her death and dying taught me so much about acceptance and presence -- she woke me to let me know it was time, we laid down together on a soft, fuzzy carpet and I could feel she was not afraid to let go. I am grateful every day to have loved her.

Turning towards grief and loss, letting it shape you and learning to move forward with it, is profound; it is sacred and precious.

My Training & Frameworks

'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.'" -- The Buddha

All of my experiences with change and grief, death and non-death related losses, have brought with them secret gifts of liberation and healing. These experiences have shaped my curiosity and inspired me to deepen my understanding of the world around me. The frameworks that guide my practice come from my life experiences and the wisdom of my teachers.

I am a student of trauma and resilience and I thank my teachers, Abbi Jaffe and Amanda Franz of The Everything Space, for their incredible wisdom and creation of the Growing Resilience: Becoming Trauma Informed training. Frameworks: safety and choice.

I am an anti-racist student of Resmaa Menakem and participated in a My Grandmother's Hands study group, led by Abbi Jaffe, working to deconstruct white supremacy using somatic practices and co-creating embodied liberation. Frameworks: abolitionism and anti-perfectionism.

I am a dedicated meditation student of Lama Rod Owens and I have a

sincere desire that all beings get free. Frameworks: intention and liberation.

I apprenticed with Starhawk and completed the Earth Activist Training Permaculture Design Certificate course in 2011 and studied with Dave Jacke to complete a Permaculture Teacher Training in 2013. Frameworks: observation and ease.

I have a bachelor's degree in Sociology from West Chester University of Pennsylvania

and a Deaf Studies Minor.

I completed an 111-hour Village Deathcare Citizen training with Anne-Marie Keppel in 2023.

I host and practice Maranasati, Death Meditation, and thank my teachers

Eugene Cash and Victoria Carey for sharing this practice with me.

I have been a facilitator for over a decade and draw on my experience as an environmental educator, team building instructor and Nonviolent Communication trainer; as well as my experience as the former Conductor and Co-Director for the Central Vermont Playback Theater troupe.

I deeply enriched in my creative artistic practice and am a

Founding Producer at Déjà Rêvé Actors Guild.

I am constantly reading, listening, taking workshops and classes led by revolutionary leaders in their fields. I feel inspired by the work of adrienne maree brown, Andrea Gibson, Clementine Morrigan, Francis Weller, Martín Prechtel, Gabor Maté, Brené Brown and Pema Chödrön.

I am a gay, sober, genderqueer-femme practicing in what is known as Burlington and Montpelier, Vermont on unceded Abenaki territory in the so-called United States.

"...all that form must be regarded with proper wisdom,

according to Reality, thus:

'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.'" -- The Buddha