These Words Don't Taste So Bad! Postcard from Doulaland 😄

Published: Fri, 09/11/20

Hello Dear Ones,

I alternately feel energized and then exhausted. It seems I'm not alone, as everyone is going through periods of coping well with the news and negative influences in their lives, and then falling apart. I'm no different. Well in one aspect I am I suppose. I just expect to fall apart every once a while and it doesn't bother me anymore. I've learned that if you want anything new to come into existence, the old has to crumble. Rarely does that feel good.

For years I've said that you couldn't teach doula skills online. Nope. Nada. Zip. Just could not wrap my brain around how I could influence someone's else's brain to develop caregiving skills unless I was in the same room with it. Then the pandemic happened, and I realized people were craving nurturing from other people! I'd been thinking about online teaching in a vacuum, rather than something that takes place in the context of regular life. Once I made that switch, everything changed. Of course I could influence people's brains! I could use the resources they already had to help.

After that it was like a dam of water exploded. I couldn't keep myself from writing hundreds of ideas on post it notes. I could've stayed in my rut, stuck with an old idea that I couldn't do something. Once I changed the question to, "How could I do...?" everything changed inside me too.

I have no ego involved in changing my mind. I don't need to be right or have the last word. That has had no place in my path of being a doula. Being made wrong means I've learned something I didn't know before, which I love more than being right.

The last month I've felt driven, overwhelmed, creative, exhausted, and hungry. When I get focused I forget to eat! So here's to better meals in my future now that this is finally launched!

If you haven't been able to take a doula training from me yet, here is your opportunity! I do offer an unpublished discount to people who have taken a training from someone else before, you do have to email and ask me about it though!

I hope you are well enough and finding ways to express your creativity!

Warmly,

Amy

Watch this short 3 and a half minute video

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Doulaing The Doula

Birth Doula Training Workshops

Are NOW Available As

ONLINE Training Events!

No need to leave your home

Dr. Amy Gilliland, PhD

You've heard me say I'd never go virtual. What changed?

As a birth doula trainer, I tune in, develop, and build confidence in people's caregiving systems. I realized I was getting in my own way by resisting the challenge of accomplishing that in a virtual learning environment. So I started teaching other workshops online and expanded my own capacity as an educator. It dawned on me that:

With careful planning, I could actually do a lot to help people achieve the same results as my in person trainings.
My trainings are about so much more than training people in "hands on" caregiving skills - plenty more.
In my heart, I'm a doula. As doulas we look for resources to solve practical problems, enhance emotional connection, and support people where they are at. I've always doula-ed everyone through each of my trainings; hence my name. I can still do that - just using different tools and strategies. Just like a birth!