Kara hallett, m.ed
Death Doula for People and their Pets
End-of-Life Educator
Grief Gardener
Hi, my name is Kara!
I am a death doula, educator, and facilitator, creating spaces where people can explore grief, mortality, and the liminal spaces in between. I offer in-person death doula support in San Diego county and also support online for anyone, anywhere, in the world. I work with both people and their beloved pets of any type.
My work extends beyond one-on-one support… I also help to lead workshops, discussion circles, and community grief rituals, helping others reclaim death as a natural and sacred part of the human experience. I am the host of Grief Garden Club, where stories and sorrow take root in community, where we to bring our grief out of the shadows and into the light of collective understanding.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UC San Diego and a Master’s degree in Education from National University, my work is deeply rooted in both the science of the mind and the art of teaching. But beyond academic credentials, my path has been shaped by lived experience… by the recognition that we, as a society, are starved of meaningful conversations about death, and in turn, about life itself.
My background in education has given me the tools to distill complex ideas into meaningful conversations. My passion for psychological, neurological, and consciousness studies allow me to approach these topics from a perspective that honors both ancient wisdom and modern science. I believe in ritual as medicine, in grief as an initiation, and in the power of storytelling to bridge the living and the dead.
If you feel called to explore these topics, I invite you to join me… whether through a session, a gathering, or simply by engaging in the conversation. Because in facing death, we don’t just learn how to die… we learn how to truly live.
I believe that death is not an end… it is a threshold, a teacher, and a mirror, reflecting the depth of what it means to be alive.
-Kara
What does it mean?
Cogitare (Latin):
Verb - “To think, ponder, wonder imagine”
Morior (Latin):
Verb - “To die, conquer”
You’ve likely heard the phrase “Memento mori” before. In Latin, as a second-person future imperative, it literally translates to “Remember (that you must) die”, a visage and warning of the inevitability of death in all of our lives and a reminder to live presently. When this type of phrasing was used specifically in Roman society, it was legalistic in tone and echoed the “Thou shalt…” vibe.
While passively looking at some art online from the Renaissance period, I stumbled upon a lesser known phrase from the same time period, “Cogita mori” etched onto the wall of the 1530 oil painting “Jerome in his Study” by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, the elder, which depicts St. Jerome, who lived from 341-420, surrounded by many symbols of death inside of the monastery in Palestine where he is known for translating the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into Latin. The Bible on his desk is open to an image of the last judgment. An hourglass and a candle are purposefully placed on the desk, where his finger is also placed upon a skull.
The admonition above his head, “Cogita mori”, or “Think upon death”, urges you to contemplate and reflect about death with curiosity. I really enjoy the distinction between the two phrases and the casual nature of pondering mortality and existence. At the end of the day, the two phrases essentially mean the same thing, but with a tone shift. It’s hard to think about death and ponder it all, for all of us. But if we can look at it with curiosity, I think we can all heal from the stigma around discussion of the inevitability of life.
