Hello
Welcome
So glad you've stopped by our website to enhance your journey to explore mortality. Take your time. Check out the beautiful or provocative images. Let us know if you have questions. A great place to start your death education
About DWDC
What is the Date with Death Club?
If you found this web site, you are probably one of the growing number of people who wants to
face the fact of our human mortality
with less fear and more curiosity,
with less euphemism and more reality,
with less conformity and more creativity.
If that sounds like you, or who you hope to become,
WELCOME to Date with Death Club.
Maybe you are experiencing more death anxiety than you are comfortable with...
Maybe you want to learn more about end of life because youyou want to explore mortality more...
Maybe death education is your hobby or your calling...
Created by Karen G. Johnston, MSW, M.Div,
DwDC explores mortality in community. DwDC is an opportunity to learn, share, and deepen your own understanding of what death means to you and how you want to approach death -- particularly your own.
Informed by spiritual sensibilities, but no specific religious dogma, Date with Death Club just may be for you.
Designed as a multi-session learning experience to take place in-person or online, DwDC participants can attend one, many, or all of the offered sessions.
DwDC is not a bereavement or grief support group.
While it may be healing of the human condition,
the nature of the DwDC is not specifically therapeutic.
Different Topics, Building on Each Other
Each Date with Death Club can be tailored to meet the needs of the community where it takes place, the interests of the participants, and the skills of the facilitator.
The curriculum contains detailed information on each of the topics all related to death education. Sessions are typically structured to be 2 1/2 hours long.
Each session has been developed with an intentional anti-oppression approach and with a strong pedagogical container to help create the necessary safe[r], brave[r] space for best exploration..
Much love and labor went into the development of the DwDC Curriculum, generated from years of spiritual practice, learning and sharing, accompanying those who were dying, and existing in this mortal world. A great way to explore mortality.
Its use is available to those with positive, justice-affirming, generative intention and impact in their community and this world.
The DwDC is meant to be an act of community service; as such, commercial use of this curriculum is prohibited. There should be no financial barrier for any participant to take part; as such, DwDC sessions should always be free of charge.
How Can I Join Date with Death Club?
We are all already members of Date with Death Club -- that is the nature of mortality. Some of us have death anxiety. Some of us feel at ease with our mortality.
If you would like to bring a Date with Death Club to your community, please reach out to Karen to explore your leading a DwDC in your own community or asking for her to do so.
If you would like to participate in a Date with Death Club, look here for information on when and where DwDCs are being held.
Date with Death Clubs Happening now
Highland Park, NJ
In-person monthly at the Highland Park (NJ) Public Library facilitated by the founder, Rev. Karen G. Johnston. No registration required.
first Saturdays, open to the public - Bloomington, IL -in-person
DwDC interviewed for podcast
Dr. Karen Wyatt interviews Rev. Karen
Take a listen to this hour-long podcast about Date with Death Club - how it started, what it's all about
So many different sessions that can be mixed and matched to meet your community's needs
Meet Mx. Mo
Mx. Mo endorses recycling
Mx. Mo & Lucinda are friends
Mx. Mo endorses recycling
including exploring human composting and other ways to be kinder to the earth when we dispose of our dead bodies
our DwDC mascot
Mx. Mo & Lucinda are friends
Mx. Mo endorses recycling
Mx. Mo & Lucinda are friends
Mx. Mo & Lucinda are friends
Mx. Mo & Lucinda are friends
About the Founder
Karen G Johnston
Karen is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, a practicing Buddhist, and in her previous profession, a clinical social worker.
The heart of her spiritual practice is
Befriending Death.
She has trained as an End of Life /Death Doula (INELDA). She spent nearly a decade creating and facilitating engaging, fun trainings for social workers. She has traveled to Asia, Africa, Europe and throughout the United States of America. She is an adoptive parent of two grown adult children and an occasional poet. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Central New Jersey.
You are Choosing Curiosity!
If there is a scoreboard somewhere in the vast universe, you get 100 extra points for deciding to face our mortality ~ takes courage and you got it!