Spiritual support

At our Winsley site, we have a dedicated spiritual space called The Beacon. It is available to anyone wishing to think, reflect, contemplate, retreat, pray or meditate – a quiet, multi-faith and no-faith space offering calm to all: patients, families, and members of our team.

Anyone wishing to visit the Book of Remembrance is very welcome to do so. It can be found beside the Beacon. Visits are ONLY available Monday to Friday during standard office hours.

Visits are prohibited outside of office hours as Inpatient Unit staff are required to prioritise their time for patient care. They are not always available to assist with the viewing of the book.

The Dorothy House Spiritual Support Team offers bespoke training designed for professionals and practitioners whose work brings them into contact with people at the end of life.

Our training recognises the whole person – patient, family, and carer – and the spiritual dimensions of dying that are so often present, yet so rarely named.

Training is tailored to context and can be developed for:

• Medical and clinical teams in hospice and hospital settings
• Community nursing and primary care
• Clergy, chaplains, and faith group leaders
• Funeral directors and crematorium staff
• Social care and charity sector staff and volunteers
• Any team whose work brings them into contact with dying, death, or bereavement.

What the training covers

Our training draws on the  understanding that physical, emotional, social, and spiritual suffering are interconnected, and that effective end-of-life care attends to all four. Participants develop:

• Understanding of what spirituality means across different traditions and for those of no faith.
• Basic skills in presence, listening, and recognition of spiritual distress.
• Confidence in meaning-making conversations and non-directive support
• Skills in unconditional positive regard and empathetic listening aligned with spiritual support
• Awareness of when to refer to specialist spiritual Support for complex existential distress or spiritual crisis

Training is offered as a half-day session, either online or in person. Bespoke sessions for specific organisations, teams or contexts can also be arranged.

Training is free of charge.

To discuss a bespoke training session for your organisation, contact our Spiritual Support Lead.

Spiritual Support_Dorothy House.pdf

National hospice and palliative care

• Hospice UK – The national champion for hospices. Includes the Dying Matters campaign, professional resources, innovation hub, and guidance for palliative care staff.
• Dying Matters (Hospice UK) – A campaign dedicated to opening conversations about death, dying and grief. Resources for professionals and the public, including podcasts, reading lists, and awareness events.
• Marie Curie – Palliative Care Knowledge Zone – A comprehensive resource for health and social care professionals on all aspects of end-of-life care, including spiritual care, faith diversity, and symptom management.

Spiritual Support and meaning-making

• The Art of Dying Well – Explores spiritual questions at the end of life, including meaning, hope, and faith. A rich resource for patients, families, and professionals.
• Macmillan Cancer Support – Palliative and End of Life Care Resources – Evidence-based professional resources including spiritual care, communication skills, and cultural competence
• Meaningful Care Matters – Promotes person-centred, compassionate care. Practical resources for practitioners on presence, relationship-based care, and wellbeing in care settings.

Conversations about death and dying

• St Mungo’s – Having Difficult Conversations About Death – Practical guidance on how to open conversations about dying, for professionals and community workers.
• Death Cafe – A global movement encouraging open conversation about death over tea and cake. Useful for community engagement and normalising death.
• The Good Death Movement – Resources on advance care planning, choices at end of life, and compassionate care, with a focus on quality of dying.

Multi-faith and cultural care

• Marie Curie – Faith at the End of Life – An accessible guide to how different faith traditions approach death, dying and bereavement, written for health and social care professionals.
• AHPCC Multifaith Resources – A curated collection of resources covering Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Jain, and other traditions in palliative care contexts.
• Interfaith Alliance UK – Promotes positive interfaith relations and mutual understanding. Useful for building community connections in culturally diverse areas.

Multi-faith Resources

• Jewish Principles of Care for the Dying – Rabbi Amy Eilberg. A widely used resource on Jewish approaches to end-of-life care and pastoral support.
• The Critical Role of Religion: Caring for the Dying Patient from an Orthodox Jewish Perspective – PubMed. Clinical perspectives on religious observance and end-of-life practice.
• Marie Curie – Faith at the End of Life – A practical online resource exploring how different faith traditions approach death, dying and bereavement, written for healthcare professionals
• The Art of Dying Well: Understanding Spiritual Needs – An accessible resource exploring spiritual questions at the end of life, drawing on Catholic tradition but broadly applicable.

• Midwife for souls: spiritual care for the dying: a pastoral guide for hospice care workers and all who live with the terminally ill by Kathy Kalina (ISBN 0819848565) Often caregivers, friends, and family are unsure of what to say and what to do to comfort the sick and the dying. Midwife for Souls provides specific Catholic insight and highlights the power of Christian prayer as a guide.
• The Comfort Book by Matt Haig (ISBN 101786898322): The Comfort Book is a collection of consolations learned in hard times and suggestions for making the bad days better. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, these meditations offer new ways of seeing ourselves and the world.
• Like the Flowing River: Thoughts and Reflections by Paulo Coelho (ISBN 0007235801) Like the Flowing River’ includes jewel-like fables, packed with meaning and retold in Coelho’s inimitable style. Sharing his thoughts on spirituality, life and ethics, Paulo touches you with his philosophy and invites you to go on an exciting journey of your own.
• A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy, and Triumph by Sheldon Vanauken (ISBN 9780060688240) A profoundly moving account of the author’s marriage, the couple’s search for faith and a spiritual strength that sustained Vanauken after his wife’s untimely death. A Severe Mercy addresses some of the universal questions that surround faith—the existence of God and the reasons behind tragedy.
• The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim (ISBN 100241340667): The world moves fast, but that doesn’t mean we have to. In this timely guide to mindfulness, Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist monk born in Korea and educated in the United States, offers advice on everything from handling setbacks to dealing with rest and relationships, in a beautiful book combining his teachings with calming full-colour illustrations.
• The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying: A Spiritual Classic from One of the Foremost Interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West by Sogyal Rinpoche (ASIN BOOSLUAGWS) How to understand the true meaning of life, how to accept death and how to help the dying.

• 42 Spiritual Death Poems about Heaven and afterlife www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/spiritual/death/
• Blessing when the world is ending by Jan Richardson.
• Love, Remember- 40 poems of loss, lament and hope, by Malcolm Guite
• Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
• Remember by Christina Rossett
• The funeral by Rupi Kaur
• Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough
• When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou
• Crossing the Bar by Lord Tennyson
• Church of England, Prayers for Use with the Dying and at Funeral and Memorial Services

• SAMARITANS CALL: 116 12 WWW.SAMARITANS.ORG
• LGBT BEREAVEMENT HELPLINE CALL: 0300 330 0630 / SWITCHBOARD LGBT+ HELPLINE
• THE SILVER LINE CALL: 0800 470 80 90 WWW.THESILVERLINE.ORG.UK
• THE GOOD GRIEF TRUST CALL: 0800 435 455 WWW.THEGOODGRIEFTRUST.ORG