Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
Learn how to recognize the rhythms and patterns that unfold during the dying process — so you can move beyond fear and meet each moment with clarity, confidence, and compassionate presence.
Death can arrive quietly, yet its impact may feel sudden, intense, and overwhelming — even when you’re prepared to care for a loved one.
As life draws to a close, dying speaks through the body, emotions, symbolic language, and subtle spiritual cues, says professional end-of-life counselor Martha Jo Atkins, PhD.
When you understand these signals — from physical changes to emotional currents and liminal experiences — it allows you to respond with attentiveness and grounded calm.
In Dr. Martha Jo's 7-module, on-demand course, you'll be guided into a different relationship with dying, leading with recognition rather than fear. You'll discover how to not only support those at the bedside, but also transform how you experience and process your own feelings surrounding death.
This is an opportunity to learn from a trusted guide who’s spent a lifetime listening to the lessons that dying teaches. Dr. Martha Jo introduces the Map of Dying™, a framework she created to illuminate the terrain of the final days. In the process, you’ll gain context surrounding common yet misunderstood physical signs, language, and internal cues that accompany this profound transition.
As the founder of Dying School, she discovered that when life ends, it follows certain patterns — physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. By understanding its structure, you have the chance to respond with greater insight and care.
Whether you’re a caregiver, professional, or seeker, this course will help you understand and act upon the deeper meaning that lies within the dying process. You’ll also discover how to maintain healthy bonds with loved ones beyond the veil.
You’ll come to view death as a natural passage, rather than a crisis to be fixed, and discover ways to create a sacred connection right where you are — hospital room, home, or bedside.
Through somatic and energy awareness practices designed to bring you clarity, presence will become medicine...
... helping you cultivate groundedness in high-intensity moments. By discovering how to create meaningful closure, you’ll learn to transform goodbyes into moments that strengthen connection and ease long-term grief.
Encounters with mortality can bring sharp focus into your life — guiding more intentional choices.
You’ll also watch video footage of life-affirming stories of real people that illustrate how the Map of Dying™ works. All the while, you’ll learn to decode repeated questions, gestures, and expressions as part of a larger trajectory — giving you the confidence to respond with curiosity and understanding instead of confusion or panic.
The deep knowledge and tools you gain can be used immediately: practical skills for caregiving, reflective practices for your own nervous system, and rituals that foster deep connection and meaning. These learnings will stay with you, transforming your approach to death, dying, and ultimately the way you live your life.
During this transformational journey, you’ll:
- Recognize the physical, emotional, and spiritual signs of dying, responding with calm and compassion
- Learn a new somatic exercise to orient you in each module
- Practice grounding, breathwork, and mindfulness tools to remain present in challenging moments
- Apply the Map of Dying™ in daily life, caregiving, and personal reflection with lasting impact
- Learn rituals and reflective exercises that create sacred closure and strengthen connection
- Decode patterns and the language of dying to guide care and understanding
- Integrate real-life stories to deepen empathy, insight, and confidence
- And much more...
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-module transformational course, Dr. Martha Jo guides you through the skills and competencies you’ll need to deepen your understanding of the dying process so you offer love and support while staying emotionally balanced.
The Beauty of On-Demand
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Dr. Martha Jo. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to gain a clearer picture of how dying unfolds so you can respond with tenderness and compassion. Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content, allowing you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Module 1 Beginning the Walk - Orienting to Death as a Sacred Passage
When you’re supporting someone at the end of life, it’s easy to feel unmoored. But Dr. Martha Jo gently reframes dying as a natural, intelligible process with its own rhythms and thresholds.
Using the Map of Dying™ framework, you’ll gain orientation to the physical, emotional, and spiritual arc from hospice decisions through the final breath. With clearer context, you’ll feel steadier, less afraid, and more able to respond with compassion and presence.
In this session, you’ll:
- Reframe death as a natural, intelligible process — helping you meet it with greater steadiness and perspective
- Experience a guided meditation to help you feel supported, resourced, and less alone as you move through the work
- Discover the purpose and structure of the Map of Dying™ — from hospice decision through the final breath
- Understand how the Map of Dying™ creates space for a conversations to reduce fear and support dignity and clarity in tender moments
- Learn language to name what is often felt but rarely spoken — supporting meaningful connection and presence
- Recognize how your own beliefs and history shape the way you accompany others
Module 2 The Body's Story - Understanding the Physical Process of Dying
The body speaks clearly at the end of life, therefore listening is key. Dr. Martha Jo shares common physical signs and changes that surface as death approaches, helping you grasp their meanings and view them as expressions of the body’s innate intelligence. As you learn that bodies know how to die, you’ll begin tracking that process so you can feel more equipped to help, support, and connect with the person who is dying.
In this session, you’ll:
- Examine physical signs of the dying process — so you can recognize what is natural and expected
- Practice two breathing exercises to shift anxiety and fear to help gain mental clarity and reduce stress
- Begin tracking the end of life process through real life video examples, illustrating different stages
- Discover ways to support and comfort the dying person — responding with attuned presence rather than panic
- Find out how fear can escalate when the body is misunderstood — and why knowledge helps soften those feelings
- Understand what being with suffering can look and feel like — so you can remain present without turning away
Module 3 The Heart's Landscape - Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Dying
Next, you’ll learn how to meet emotions without fixing, suppressing, or bypassing. This module will help you understand how emotional states function near the end of life for both the dying person and the caregiver.
You’ll practice shifting focus, and explore additional tools for tracking and changing somatic states.
In the process, you’ll discover firsthand how when feelings are met with compassion, they often diffuse, allowing space for connection and honesty.
In this session, you’ll:
- Learn about common emotional patterns that arise near death — so you can recognize intensity without being overwhelmed by it
- Experience in an open focus exercise to shift your brain so you don’t get pulled into unwanted energy
- Find out what it means to stay in your “hula hoop” — understanding the difference between empathy and saving
- Discover tools for meeting fear and anger with steadiness — supporting presence instead of reactivity
- Understand how to navigate the experience of loving someone you may not always like — making space for complexity without shame
- Practice an eye movement exercise to bring you back to yourself and bring a mind-body reset
Module 4 Liminal & Spiritual Experiences at the Threshold - Understanding Sacred Moments & Responding With Presence
Many people have reported visions, heightened awareness, or a sense of presence beyond the physical at the end of life. Through The Language of Dying™, this module will help you explore these experiences.
You’ll learn how to recognize common spiritual and liminal phenomena and understand them as meaningful communication rather than confusion or signs of decline — becoming a steady witness and decoder of this ancient language with calm presence and respect.
In this session, you’ll:
- Learn about common spiritual and liminal experiences that arise near death — so you can recognize them as part of the threshold experience
- Find out how to respond without interpreting, correcting, or pathologizing — allowing meaning to unfold naturally
- Explore language that honors mystery without imposing belief — supporting the dying person’s worldview
- Discover why these experiences often bring reassurance, coherence, closure, and even peace to the dying
Module 5 Presence as Medicine - Being With Dying in Steadiness and Grace
Dr. Martha Jo demonstrates how to “read” the room while deepening mind-body awareness, and how your presence will be the most powerful support you can offer at the end of life.
You’ll practice three tools for regulating your nervous system when you need it most. Rather than striving, you’ll learn how to stay — physically, emotionally, and energetically — without abandoning yourself so you can cultivate a grounded, resourced presence in the face of uncertainty.
In this session, you’ll:
- Watch videos of people in liminal spaces, observe their behaviors, and discuss what you see
- Practice simple grounding tools for high-intensity moments — helping you stay emotionally steady when emotions rise
- Find out how nervous systems co-regulate near death — and why your inner calm can be your greatest offering
- Discover signs that you’re overwhelmed — and review practical ways to reset before you shut down or overextend
- Realize why presence matters more than saying the right thing — reducing pressure to perform
- Learn practices for sustaining yourself over time — so you can continue this work without depletion
Module 6 Goodbyes That Heal - Creating Meaningful Closure and Easing Long-Term Grief
End-of-life goodbyes mark endings, and can become moments of meaning-making that shape your memory long into the future.
This module will help you explore how to support conversations, rituals, and gestures to foster completion. You’ll create space for what needs to be said, and small, intentional practices that can bring comfort before and after death.
When goodbyes are understood as a process rather than a single moment, they can become honest, relational, and deeply human.
In this session, you’ll:
- Realize what makes a goodbye healing rather than rushed — helping reduce regret and unresolved grief
- Watch a moving video of a dying ritual to prepare you for the language of dying
- Learn about rituals that support deep meaning and lasting connection — even in ordinary settings
- Invite honesty without pressure — asking questions about how people want to be tended and opening space for hard conversations
- Discover how to support families before and after death — strengthening relational bonds
- Understand how thoughtful endings can ease long-term grief — shaping memories with greater tenderness
Module 7 Living What Dying Teaches - Integrating the Map and Mystery to Transform Life in the Present
Your journey will come to a natural close by gathering all the teachings you’ve learned. You’ll have space to reflect on the prior lessons, exploring how an awareness of the dying process can forever alter how you live your life.
Dr. Martha Jo also honors the wisdom that cannot be mapped. You’ll explore how to carry these lessons into your daily life and relationships, cultivating a deeper trust in your ability to meet life’s thresholds.
In this session, you’ll:
- Examine core lessons that emerge from accompanying dying — giving insight into life, love, and priorities
- Watch experiential videos of people dying and their processes — gaining newfound depth and understanding
- Discover how death clarifies values, and that what matters most is fostering conscious choices
- Find out how to integrate the Map of Dying™ into your understanding and practice — bringing structure to experience
- Realize how mystery deepens wisdom — supporting acceptance of what cannot be fully known
- Harness the power of imagination and meaning-making — creating enduring significance in life and death
SPECIAL BONUS OFFER
In addition to Martha Jo’s transformative 7-module course, you’ll receive this special bonus offering to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Where Are You on the Timeline? Reflecting on Mortality, Decline, and the Shape of Dying
Audio Teaching and PDF Guide From Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
This reflective audio teaching plus PDF guide invite you to explore where you are on your life timeline, and how that may shape your fears, hopes, and assumptions about dying. Guided prompts will help you consider different death trajectories and the kind of end-of-life experience you may anticipate or desire. Dr. Martha Jo offers you gentle support for approaching the inquiry with honesty and self-compassion, helping you locate yourself personally in the material before the course even begins.
Opening the Conversation: Prompts for Talking About Death Before You Have To
Death and Dying Conversation Prompts PDF Guide From Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
Designed to help participants begin conversations about death and dying, this 9-page prompts-based PDF guide offers reflective questions on first memories of death, early messages received, and the ways culture shapes experience. It also provides gentle language for opening a dialogue with loved ones. Together, these elements normalize death as a natural part of our human reality and help build confidence in speaking about it openly.
What People Are Saying About Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD…
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
Experience a unique opportunity to be mentored by and learn from end-of-life professional counselor and SE practitioner Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD, founder of Dying School — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a livestreaming video option and will guide you to learn a heart-centered approach to moving through loss, and transforming how you relate to death. .
Seven Transcripts of Class Sessions
You’ll also receive the entire class transcription after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, Explore The Map of Dying™
We feel honored that Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online course. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with an end-of-life professional counselor and founder of Dying School whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about understanding the signals and language of the dying process so you can respond with attentiveness, insight, and grounded calm — then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind program.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
If you don’t absolutely LOVE Explore The Map of Dying™ — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 14 days from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
About Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, PhD
Dr. Martha Jo Atkins’ favorite place to work is in homes, guiding families — the ones we are born into and the ones we choose — as they care for one of their own who is dying. An end-of-life psychotherapist and doula, she has spent her 30-year career helping children and adults negotiate end-of-life and grief.
Dr. Martha Jo, the founder and first Executive Director of the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas, served as Executive Director of Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying in San Antonio. She is the author of Signposts of Dying and the founder of Dying School (D-School), designed to deepen conversations and abilities to care for friends/family/ourselves at end-of-life. Her TEDx, “More to Dying Than Meets the Eye,” has almost two million views.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there scholarships available for this training?
Unfortunately, all scholarship awards for this course have been fully allocated, and we are no longer accepting scholarship applications.
What is your refund policy?
The refund deadline for this course was two weeks. Refund requests are not accepted after the deadline or for courses purchased with scholarship awards. We’d also love the opportunity to address and resolve your concerns directly. If we can assist with anything, please contact us at [email protected] — we’re here to help!
How can I reach Customer Support?
Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
This course was pre-recorded. Is the content still relevant?
While this is a pre-recorded course, the teachings remain as relevant and impactful today as when they were first offered. We’ve selected these programs because their wisdom, tools, and practices continue to resonate deeply with our global community.
How long will I have access to my Course Homepage and materials?
Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content — online via your Homepage — unless refunded or otherwise specified. We currently don’t have an expiration date for our online materials. This will allow you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.