Profiles in presence: HOLLY J PRUETT
Interview with Holly J Pruett in her own words:
This month we are excited to introduce doula Holly J. Pruett in our newsletter. Based in Portland OR, Holly has been at the forefront of end-of-life and after death care for individuals, families and communities for nearly fifteen years. While Holly is a highly respected and accomplished member of this field, it began for her on a much more intimate level: “my first major initiation of accompanying a dying person was with my father almost 24 years ago when he was diagnosed with a fatal brain cancer in his early 60’s. I was his part-time caregiver for 18 months. Looking back, I honor this experience for setting me on the path into this work.”
After reaching a crossroads in her community non-profit work, Holly embarked on self-study and inquiry about the option of green burials in the northwest, and ultimately completed training as a community death educator, life cycle celebrant and home funeral guide. “My first professional role in this field, and one I continue to love, was serving as a funeral celebrant. Having worked as a community organizer and in social justice and community settings, I noticed that there’s a need in places like the Pacific Northwest, where there are many people who are spiritual but not religious, to find new ways to create ritual and ceremony around life’s passages.”
Holly sees her work as a celebrant “as a kind of midwifing, helping the family or community transition their relationship with a person in their living body to a person who remains a part of their lives, recognizable but in a different form, through the way they are remembered and mourned, their legacy and the artifacts of their life. It’s so reassuring for people to see this life remembered, and to see them build capacity for healing, ritual and bereavement . . . to be a creative partner with people and help them build a touchstone that will enrich them and help them going forward.”
In working with people in these ways, Holly started finding the desire for more anticipatory work to occur, helping people clarify their values, what was important to them at life’s end. Seeking to align her practice with the expanding end-of-life doula field, Holly found her way to The Peaceful Presence Project.
“Meeting with Peter Schubert during the revival of Portland’s Hopewell House, Peter was very excited about having recently taken the Peaceful Presence training; I was inspired to check their programs out. Having been a nonprofit executive director, consultant, and board member, I felt a great deal of respect for the professionalism and care that was so evident in my contacts with TPPP staff. . . I could see that it was an inspiring and high quality organization that I would want to support in my own small way.”
In addition to enrolling in the Professional Presence doula training, Holly presented an in-service program on Oregon Funeral Resources & Education, the public information website she co-created. Now she’s serving as Team Advisor to the Peaceful Presence trained doulas coming together in Portland to share and discuss their work and to partner on community education projects. This “Portland expansion” of TPPP will take referrals within the Portland metro area, utilizing their TPPP training and individual talents to serve.
Spending years serving and advocating for underserved populations, Holly is sensitive to systemic barriers that can impact the ability for “all to have what we consider a good death”. Thus, she is drawn to the Compassionate Community model that encourages thinking together as a system of care and democratizing access to information and available resources. In her own practice, Holly serves as an experienced and knowledgeable witness, companion, and facilitator to help individuals, their families, and communities prepare for, live with, and talk about death. In 2025 she is continuing to offer her signature 6 part program called “Befriending Mortality” that will complement educational presentations with an on-going support group framework so that participants have a safe place to voice thoughts, feelings and concerns, akin to the death cafe model.
An advocate, a deep listener, a creative with great passion for her work, we are so grateful for Holly and our evolving collaboration with her!