Tender Loving Care (TLC) Workshop
A soul midwives workshop for supporting someone at the end of life
Learn practical, compassionate ways to bring greater comfort, calm and dignity to someone approaching the end of their life. Led by end-of-life companion and Bowen therapist Jo Swift, this supportive one-day workshop will help you understand the dying process, respond to changing needs, hold a loving vigil and approach tender conversations with greater confidence.
For family members, carers, therapists, healthcare professionals and anyone who may be supporting someone with a life-limiting diagnosis.
What is this workshop about?
Supporting someone who is approaching the end of their life can feel overwhelming. You may want to help, but feel unsure about what to expect, what to say or how to bring comfort when circumstances are changing.
Tender Loving Care (TLC) is a practical, compassionate workshop designed to help you feel more prepared. Based on Felicity Warner’s award-winning Soul Midwives training, it offers simple ideas and skills that can make the dying process gentler for the person you are supporting and for those around them.
Through practical activities and guided discussion, you will explore ways to offer comfort, listen deeply, respond to changing needs and create a calm, loving space.
Although the workshop deals with dying and death, the day is warm, thoughtful and life-affirming. There is space to ask questions, share experiences and approach the subject at a gentle pace.
“Presence is often all that is needed – this is much more a time for being, rather than doing.”
— Jo Swift
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is for anyone who would like to feel more prepared and confident when supporting someone approaching the end of their life.
It may be especially helpful if you are:
- Caring for, or expecting to care for, a loved one with a life-limiting diagnosis
- Working in palliative care, a hospital, care home, health centre or community setting
- A holistic or complementary therapist supporting clients with serious or life-limiting illness
- Helping to develop a more compassionate and informed community around death and dying
You do not need any previous experience. You only need a willingness to approach the subject with openness, care and curiosity.
What you will learn
By the end of the workshop, you will have a clearer understanding of the dying process and practical ways to offer calm, compassionate support.
The four stages of dying
Learn how to recognise the four stages of dying and understand how a person’s needs may change during each stage. Using a simple elements model, you will explore what you may notice physically, emotionally and spiritually, helping you feel more prepared and less fearful of the unknown.
Holding a loving vigil
Discover how to create a calm, comforting space around the bedside. You will learn simple ways to support the dying person, involve family members and maintain an atmosphere that reflects their needs, wishes and beliefs.
Ways to comfort and support
Gain practical skills to help ease physical and emotional discomfort as someone approaches the end of life. You will explore how gentle touch, presence, listening and small changes to the environment can bring reassurance and comfort, without feeling that you always need to know what to do or say.
Tender conversations
Learn how to listen deeply and approach difficult conversations with greater confidence and sensitivity. You will explore ways to help someone feel heard and valued, while creating space for important words, wishes and emotions to be shared.
What you will learn
By the end of the workshop, you will have a clearer understanding of the dying process and practical ways to offer calm, compassionate support.
The four stages of dying
Learn how to recognise the four stages of dying and understand how a person’s needs may change during each stage. Using a simple elements model, you will explore what you may notice physically, emotionally and spiritually, helping you feel more prepared and less fearful of the unknown.
Holding a loving vigil
Discover how to create a calm, comforting space around the bedside. You will learn simple ways to support the dying person, involve family members and maintain an atmosphere that reflects their needs, wishes and beliefs.
Ways to comfort and support
Gain practical skills to help ease physical and emotional discomfort as someone approaches the end of life. You will explore how gentle touch, presence, listening and small changes to the environment can bring reassurance and comfort, without feeling that you always need to know what to do or say.
Tender conversations
Learn how to listen deeply and approach difficult conversations with greater confidence and sensitivity. You will explore ways to help someone feel heard and valued, while creating space for important words, wishes and emotions to be shared.
Meet your tutor, Jo Swift
Jo Swift is an end-of-life companion, qualified Bowen therapist and massage therapist based in rural South Devon.
Her approach is shaped by professional training and deeply personal experience. Jo spent almost 20 years caring for members of her family, including supporting her mother through the final months and weeks of her life. Sitting vigil with her during this time strengthened Jo’s belief that dying can be approached with greater openness, compassion and understanding.
Jo’s own relationship with mortality has also informed her work. After being treated for breast cancer in 2018, she learned in 2024 that the cancer had returned and could be managed, but not cured. This diagnosis led her to reflect more deeply on how we live with uncertainty, how we use the time available to us and where people can turn to speak honestly about the emotional and spiritual aspects of dying.
Through her work, Jo aims to make conversations about death less frightening and more accessible. She creates a calm, inclusive space where people can ask questions, explore difficult feelings and gain practical ways to support someone approaching the end of life.
“My aim is to help remove some of the fear surrounding death and dying, so that people feel more able to live fully, for however long that may be.”
Walking alongside, supporting you to live well and die well.
What to expect from the day
Talking about death and dying can feel daunting, but this workshop is designed to be warm, supportive and gently paced.
Throughout the day, you will take part in a varied mix of guided discussion, practical activities and time for personal reflection. Real-life examples will help show how simple changes can bring greater comfort and reassurance to someone approaching the end of life.
There will be space to ask questions, share experiences and take time with any emotions that arise. You will never be expected to share more than feels comfortable.
Although the subject matter is tender, the day is far from gloomy. It offers a compassionate and life-affirming way to explore death, deepen understanding and feel better prepared to support someone with care.
Ready to join us?
Explore the upcoming Tender Loving Care workshops and choose the date that works for you.
