ABOUT
Before moving into death work, Rebecca worked in theatre and the performing arts, where she found herself repeatedly drawn to themes of mortality, grief, impermanence, and care through both writing and performance.
When her mother became ill, caring for her felt intuitive. Around the same time, someone sent Rebecca an article about death doulas, saying the work reminded them of her. Everything she read resonated immediately.
Rebecca applied for her death doula training, which happened to begin on the same day her brother Alex died suddenly. In the years since, death has continued to shape her life personally. Her brother, mother, and father have all died, and those experiences deeply inform the way she approaches this work.
Rebecca trained through the University of Vermont End of Life Doula Professional Certificate program. She completed foundation training with the Living Well Dying Well Person Centred Approach to Death and Dying programme in the UK. She also completed the Children’s Grief and Bereavement Certificate Program through SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health in Canada, led by Andrea Warnick.
Having children herself deeply shaped Rebecca’s interest in understanding how children experience death, grief, and bereavement. Her work is informed by the belief that children benefit from honest, age appropriate conversations around dying and death, and from being included in the process rather than protected through silence or exclusion.
Her work is grounded in honesty, companionship, and the belief that engaging more openly with death can help us live with greater presence, clarity, and care.
SERVICES
1:1 Sessions
1:1 Sessions
These sessions offer space for honest conversation, reflection, and practical support.
People come for many different reasons: to talk about death and dying, to explore anxieties around mortality, to prepare for the end of life, to support someone they love, or simply to have conversations that are difficult to begin elsewhere.
Sessions may include conversations around grief, fear, family dynamics, illness, care planning, practical preparation, relationships, and the emotional realities of death and dying.
Every session is different and shaped by the person in front of me and what feels necessary to talk about at that moment.
Together, we may explore:
- Preparing for your own death
- Supporting someone who is dying
- Fear, grief, anxiety, or uncertainty around death
- Practical and emotional end of life preparation
- Family dynamics and communication during illness or bereavement
- Questions around meaning, identity, and change after death enters your life
- How mortality shapes the way we live now
Sessions may not be filmed or recorded.
Grief & Bereavement Groups
These groups offer people an opportunity to gather, speak openly, listen, and sit alongside others navigating grief and change. The focus is not on fixing grief, but on creating space for it to be witnessed without judgment or pressure.
Groups can be arranged privately for communities and organisations.
Death Café
Rebecca hosts a monthly Death Café at The Hearth in London.
Death Cafes are informal gatherings where people come together to talk openly about death and dying in a relaxed and welcoming environment. There is no agenda, therapy, or prescribed outcome, simply conversation, reflection, and community.
The aim is to help make conversations around death more familiar, less isolated, and more present within everyday life.
Book here at The Hearth
16 Lonsdale Rd, London
PROJECTS
Camp Alex is a three night bereavement retreat in northern Portugal that supports families who have experienced the death of a parent. The retreat offers therapeutic support, community, and time together in nature for families navigating grief. A space where families can grieve, gather, and openly navigate loss together with support.
CONTACT
For bookings, inquiries, or any questions, reach out at: rebecca.illing@gmail.com
IMPORTANT
INFORMATIO
Rebecca is not a therapist, doctor, lawyer, or medical professional, and these sessions are not a replacement for mental health care, crisis support, medical advice, or legal guidance.
She does not provide diagnoses, treatment, or prescriptive answers.
If you are looking for clinical intervention, immediate mental health support, or specialist medical or legal advice, this work may not be the right fit.
What Rebecca offers is companionship, conversation, practical reflection, and support in navigating subjects that many people struggle to speak about openly.