Should I Become a Funeral Director or Death Doula (or both?)
Here at Campo de Estrellas, we are frequently asked how we got into the cemetery business. Our professional backgrounds include funeral service, as well as the medical and legal industries, so our pivot into establishing an all-natural burial cemetery is certainly unique but not entirely unconventional. Our prior expertise has served us well in navigating the bureaucratic complexities of funeral planning and land management, instilled empathy in us for the difficult circumstances our families are experiencing, and provided a network of people we can call on for assistance. It’s also opened up conversations with other professionals in the end-of-life space looking to expand their work in death care.
More and more, we’re hearing questions from our network about becoming a death doula or a funeral director. We’ve heard it often enough that we decided to look more closely at what each of these roles offers in terms of actual work, as well as what the path to becoming a practitioner currently looks like.
It’s important to note that while these roles are being discussed together in this post, they serve different purposes and appear at different points in end-of-life care. And, as mentioned in an earlier post, they are not mutually exclusive.
Funeral directors largely handle after-death tasks, including removal of the deceased, filing of death certificates, body preparation, and facilitating memorial or graveside services. It is a formalized, highly regulated profession that requires licensure through an accredited program.
Death doula work, on the other hand, tends to be less structured and, crucially, intervenes earlier in the dying process, when the client is still able to make decisions, or with the next of kin of a dying person in need of support and guidance.
In terms of deciding which role you are more suited for, this distinction may be the deciding factor. While some funeral directors offer pre-need planning services (which often requires obtaining an insurance certification), they mostly encounter families after a death has occurred. Death doulas walk with people right up to that line and help them cross it – with control and dignity.
To give us some insight into what it’s like to become certified and work in each of these roles, we talked to professionals we know about their education and experience in the fields. Ezra Salter is a funeral director who works for a large corporate-owned funeral home in New Orleans, LA, and Sam Reyes-Godbee, also a funeral director, works for a small funeral home that focuses on direct cremation services in San Antonio, TX. Sandy Travis and Wayne Beamer of Central Texas are both death doulas and co-founders of Life Transitions Doulas.
Education and Cost
In the U.S., death doula training differs from funeral service in that there is currently no standardized set of requirements to obtain certification or licensure, nor any degree-earning program attached to it. Unlike the U.K., where End of Life Doula UK operates as the main national membership association for training and standards, in the U.S. there are hundreds of certification courses that guide participants through training for different aspects of end-of-life care. Cost and structure vary, as does the length of each course.
Sandy and Wayne became End of Life Doulas in 2022, after completing the ABODE End of Life Doula 3-month certification course from International Doula Life Movement (IDLM). In 2023, they received their Life Planning Doula Specialist certification from IDLM, which also lasted 3 months and cost $600.
Continuing education is not required but is often pursued by practitioners to expand their offerings. For Wayne and Sandy, their focus is on improving how they provide services. To that end, they are currently pursuing an End of Life Yoga Doula certification to fine-tune their contemplative, meditative approach with clients. They also regularly volunteer with local end-of-life organizations and facilitate Death Cafes to give participants an opportunity to discuss death in a supportive and non-judgmental environment.
Obtaining a funeral director’s license, on the other hand, typically requires admittance into a degree-earning program, which includes an apprenticeship, classroom work, and sitting for a licensing exam. Every state has continuing education requirements to maintain the license.
Ezra graduated from Delgado Community College’s Funeral Service program in 2018. The two-year associate’s program estimates its tuition to be $4,078 per year (including textbooks). Sam graduated from Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service in Atlanta in 2015. The college currently estimates the total cost of admission at $35,546. Her associate’s degree program was slightly shorter than Ezra’s, at a year and a half, with an additional year to complete her apprenticeship. That portion could have been completed sooner, she notes, but working for a large funeral home that moved her around frequently extended her apprenticeship.
Compensation and Workload
According to ZipRecruiter, the average income for a funeral director in 2025 is around $65,886/year, though this varies depending on location and firm size. Ezra and Sam both work full-time and serve around 100–120 families a year. This often includes everything from being on call, performing removals and body preparation, making arrangements, and also performing the service.
For Ezra, who works at a larger funeral home, her day-to-day primarily involves family care. She is not on call or doing removals, but instead arranges services with families, prepares the location, and directs the funeral. This includes setting up keepsakes or photos, playing music, working with clergy, and directing pallbearers. She also handles administrative tasks like contacting life insurance companies, filing death certificates, and ordering funerary items like caskets and flowers.
Sam’s funeral home is smaller and offers more limited services, so she and her coworker take on-call shifts 3–4 times a week, including weekends. She works with families to arrange services, issues cremation paperwork, and schedules cremations. Body removal and preparation are handled by another team.
Death doulas earn an average of $49,220/year, according to ZipRecruiter. However, Sandy and Wayne note that it can take time to achieve stable income. “Something no doula wants to talk about is money,” they write, addressing the question: “Will pursuing a career as an End of Life Doula provide a steady, reliable income stream?” Their answer is yes and no. In their experience: “In the beginning, understand that it will take a while to establish a practice in the community. That’s why it’s important to keep an open mind to exploring additional ways to support ourselves at the onset.” Some death doulas, they note, offer their services on a strictly volunteer basis.
Their client interactions vary from year to year, as is common in doula work. Initially, they connected with clients through ABODE’s Doula Dispatch Program and their own social media and website. They began seeing around 15 clients a year but have recently scaled back due to personal circumstances. This grow-at-your-own-pace method is typical for death doulas, who often operate in a more entrepreneurial atmosphere. Wayne and Sandy, for example, began their practice by helping people complete their advance directives in response to a growing community need.
Unique Aspects to Each Role
Ezra came to funeral directing with a background in costuming, stage makeup, and technical theater, which she sees as an extension of her funeral work. “When you think about it, a funeral is technically live theater,” she wrote. Applying her stage production knowledge keeps the job interesting. She is also a cemetery enthusiast and loves interacting with historic cemeteries across New Orleans.
Sam’s favorite aspect of her role is being involved in the administrative tasks of funeral planning—handling insurance, filing death certificates, receiving floral arrangements, making casket sales, writing obituaries, and coordinating with the medical examiner. Paramount to her work is educating families—and the public—about how the death care industry works. “Being the last person to bathe the deceased, arrange their jewelry, or comb their hair is an honor,” she writes.
Death doulas bring varied experience to their roles and often find ways to integrate their expertise into end-of-life care. A hallmark of doula work is tailoring care to the specific needs of clients. “Newer doulas may not realize they’ll provide very diverse services throughout their careers,” Sandy and Wayne write. “In the beginning, we helped quite a few folks complete their advance directives because there seemed to be a large need.”
Other clients may request more long-term assistance. In one case, a family needed help navigating a recent terminal cancer diagnosis and the hesitation of an oncologist to provide clear communication. “Many times, we offer a safe, sacred space for the person who is dying and the family to talk and grieve,” they write.
Working Together
While she hasn’t yet worked with a death doula, Sam is eager to. She hasn’t considered becoming one herself but has worked in hospice and organ donation—two areas that often intersect with both funeral and doula work. She also advocates for green funeral options in her current role.
Ezra once considered becoming a death doula but finds that her work as a full-time funeral director doesn’t allow the time commitment the role requires. She serves on the advisory board of Wake, a local nonprofit, where she engages with the doula community and advocates for alternatives like natural burial and education for LGBTQ+ communities.
Death doulas may collaborate with funeral directors but are careful not to assume responsibilities that require licensure. “The laws in Texas are fairly strict in that regard,” Sandy and Wayne write. “We can assist families with funeral planning and coordination, but we cannot arrange or provide licensed funeral services in exchange for payment.” They often assist with research, planning, and general support. For example, they recently compiled a list of green funeral sites in Central Texas for families to reference—without endorsing any specific business. Like Sam and Ezra, Sandy and Wayne also work as educators: writing and editing course content, giving local presentations, and offering workshops on preparing for the end of life.
Clearly, there is a great deal of crossover between these two roles, and much to consider when pursuing either. Becoming a dual practitioner is not uncommon in end-of-life care and can make it easier to perform certain tasks that require licensure, thereby streamlining service offerings.
But as the participants in this piece illustrate, dedicating time to serve families in both roles can be a challenge. End-of-life work doesn’t follow a typical schedule and is often more demanding than expected. That’s when a strong community of fellow death care workers becomes invaluable. Maintaining those relationships allows you to step in, wherever and however you’re needed.