About Me
About Me
A native Californian, I grew up in Contra Costa and continue to make my home here, raising my daughter and a number of pugs over the years. With a master’s degree in clinical psychology and a specialization in grief therapy, I have been a licensed marriage and family therapist for over thirty years. I entered the field of death, dying and grief as a master’s level clinical intern in hospice care in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS epidemic and then moved to hospice work and bereavement program direction in the Bay Area, providing individual grief therapy, grief group counseling and end of life support to clients and their loved ones as well as for hospice and care facility staff. Over my years of professional service in various contexts, I have worked with clients and their families facing a range of end of life illnesses and issues as well as bereavement. I was also a lead instructor in the UC Berkeley Extension professional certificate program on death, dying and grief studies and have provided trainings and education across a wide span of issues in the field to a diverse range of audiences. I spent more than a decade in the crisis and suicide intervention field as both clinician and educator and another decade working in a major healthcare organization as a psychotherapist and case manager. I am currently volunteering at hospice providing end of life companionship and care. I have supported and said goodbye to multiple family members, friends and colleagues, as well as clients over the years, and have negotiated the complicated and oftentimes unpredictable path of grief and the changes a loved one’s death creates.
I am trained as an end of life doula with INELDA-The International End of Life Doula Association (2023) and am also a member of NEDA-The National End of Life Doula Association and have attained their proficiency badge. I have taken intensive trainings in doula work as well as trainings in rituals, guided imagery, sound meditation, working with patients with dementia, and mapping emotions to address unresolved issues. In the past, I have participated in trainings led by Sogyal Rinpoche, Stephen and Ondrea Levine and other notables in the field of living and dying.
About Me
A native Californian, I grew up in Contra Costa and continue to make my home here, raising my daughter and a number of pugs over the years. With a master’s degree in clinical psychology and a specialization in grief therapy, I have been a licensed marriage and family therapist for over thirty years. I entered the field of death, dying and grief as a master’s level clinical intern in hospice care in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS epidemic and then moved to hospice work and bereavement program direction in the Bay Area, providing individual grief therapy, grief group counseling and end of life support to clients and their loved ones as well as for hospice and care facility staff. Over my years of professional service in various contexts, I have worked with clients and their families facing a range of end of life illnesses and issues as well as bereavement. I was also a lead instructor in the UC Berkeley Extension professional certificate program on death, dying and grief studies and have provided trainings and education across a wide span of issues in the field to a diverse range of audiences. I spent more than a decade in the crisis and suicide intervention field as both clinician and educator and another decade working in a major healthcare organization as a psychotherapist and case manager. I am currently volunteering at hospice providing end of life companionship and care. I have supported and said goodbye to multiple family members, friends and colleagues, as well as clients over the years, and have negotiated the complicated and oftentimes unpredictable path of grief and the changes a loved one’s death creates.
I am trained as an end of life doula with INELDA-The International End of Life Doula Association (2023) and am also a member of NEDA-The National End of Life Doula Association and have attained their proficiency badge. I have taken intensive trainings in doula work as well as trainings in rituals, guided imagery, sound meditation, working with patients with dementia, and mapping emotions to address unresolved issues. In the past, I have participated in trainings led by Sogyal Rinpoche, Stephen and Ondrea Levine and other notables in the field of living and dying.
Judi Hampshire
In my free time, I am an avid walker and hiker, enjoy tennis, baking, reading, going to see musicals and theatre and time spent with my adult daughter and with my friends. A relaxed early morning with a hot cup of coffee, a good book while reclining in a cozy chair with my pug cuddling in my lap is a treasured pastime.
Benefits Of Working With Me
When people are dying, they often feel alone and frightened. I offer warm, authentic presence and heartfelt, deep listening. I am responsible, dependable and honest with a sincere joy of and gratitude for life and the full spectrum of the life cycle. I bring my whole self to my work to nurture respect, dignity, curiosity, and loving-kindness to empower my clients and their loved ones I serve to identify their values, wishes, desires and needs through their end of life journey and to create meaningful legacy work, life review and vigil planning that align with those stated truths. I deeply trust the inner wisdom and strength of others and hold space for those resources to emerge.
I have worked with people as they were dying in my hospice work as well as in my psychotherapy practice and am well-equipped with the resources and skills to address difficult and upsetting circumstances and create thoughtful and meaningful coping strategies and resolutions. Through my personal and professional experiences, I have honed skills of compassionate, perceptive presence, active and discerning empathic listening, and facilitation of brave and difficult conversations.
My thirty years of experience working in healthcare helps me to effectively guide clients through the system and to advocate on their behalf when needed. I prioritize client needs and strive to ensure they receive the care and attention they require. I assist my clients to discover their definition of quality of life, quality of death and informed decisions in a safe environment that allows for more loving, peaceful transitions and healthy grieving.
I am an experienced psychotherapist with extensive training and well-developed skills and have worked with a wide variety of issues, situations and individuals. While I will not be providing therapy as an end of life doula, my skills and knowledge serve me well in this role. I understand and have wide experience working with clients and their loved ones to cope with the complex dynamics and emotions that accompany the often extended trajectory of illness, dying and death through multiple losses and changes, treatments, remissions, recurrences and the dying process and the toll this takes on each person and on each relationship.
I strive to be non-judgmental regarding religious beliefs, lifestyles, family and cultural traditions. I embrace social justice and open-hearted support for LGBTQIA2+, BIPOC and culturally-specific communities. I enter the homes and lives of those I serve with humility, integrity and respectful curiosity to understand and support.
Over the years, I have worked in hospice and with other multi-disciplinary teams; I participate skillfully and successfully collaborating and consulting to meet the needs of clients and their loved ones.
People who are dying often worry about their family and loved ones and how they will cope once they are gone. I have many decades of practical experience and education in grief work and its many facets and will assist families and loved ones on this very personal and profound journey after loss.
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
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