Talking about Death
A difficult but necessary culture shift
Dr Helena Dolny is author of “Before Forever After: When Conversations
about Living meet Questions about Dying” (2017). She co-founded LoveLegacyDignity together with Mapi Mhlangu in 2018. Life had offered her an unusual share of death. She discovered her gift of being comfortable to sit with the dying, including her husband's death from cancer after a four-year illness. They had plenty of time to talk but they avoided difficult c conversations. Her soul work became to encourage people to break the taboo on talking about dying. She trained as an end-of-life guide (USA 2009), a Hospice counsellor (RSA 2010) a Resilience Coach (2020) and Grief
Counsellor (USA 2021). Formerly an agricultural economist, she served as CEO of the Land Bank and Director of Agriculture at Standard Bank. She completed a Masters in Leadership Coaching (Stellenbosch 2005) and became Standard Bank’s Director of Coaching & Mentoring. Since 2009 Helena has run a coaching business, Grey Matters, as well as working as an end-of-life doula and grief counsellor.
A difficult but necessary culture shift