Because we know you care about how we support one another through life’s final chapter — whether professionally or personally — we warmly invite you to join us for a unique and moving experience.
The Dr Michael Barbato Trilogy is a powerful three-part learning series presented by Preparing the Way, in partnership with revered palliative care physician, researcher, and author Dr Michael Barbato.
Over decades of service — including roles as Medical Director of Sacred Heart Hospice and Director of Palliative Care in the ACT — Dr Barbato has helped thousands understand and navigate the mystery, physiology, and grace of dying. His insights into awareness, dreams, and responsiveness in the final moments of life have changed lives and clinical practice alike.
He is joined in conversation by Helen Callanan, founder of Preparing the Way, home of the world’s only accredited 10966NAT Certificate IV in End of Life Doula Services (presented in partnership with Essential Skills Training and Recruitment RTO 91729). Together, they bring deep humanity, practical wisdom, and a rare openness to this profound topic.
Your registration includes:
Topics explored include:
This is an event for anyone who cares for or sits with others in times of illness, ageing, dying, or grief — nurses, care workers, funeral professionals, doulas, spiritual carers, volunteers, and those simply called to this work.
Helen Callanan is the founder, managing director and lead educator of Preparing The Way. As Australia and New Zealand’s leading end of life education and doula training organisation, Helen and her team have trained over 500 end of life doulas. End of life doulas assist a person with a diagnosis and those close to them to help explore their options, provide access to education and resources, and connect support networks to provide the best end of life possible.
Michael Barbato is a retired palliative care physician and author of the book 'Caring for the Dying'. His interests include states of consciousness, near-death experience and holistic care of the dying. Together with his wife and partner Ann, Michael now runs a correspondence course for professional and community groups on the art of Midwifing Death. He worked as a palliative care doctor for almost 25 years, transitionaing from mainstream medicine. For the first time he encountered people who, in the course of their dying, described experiences that defied logic. These included visions of predeceased relatives, prophetic dreams, out-of-body experiences and waking from a comatose state immediately before death. Others exhibited a serenity he had not considered possible.
