State of play: As discussion of death has gotten less taboo, more people are calling upon death doulas to help them thoughtfully plan their final days.

• Even public figures including Nicole Kidman and filmmaker Chloé Zhao have talked in interviews this year about training to become death doulas.

How it works: Harmon says she can help death doula clients with:

• Sorting legal matters like health care directives and wills.
• Making burial plans, which can include post-death bathing and/or shrouding and celebrations of life (now often before death).
• Reflecting on their life and considering a "legacy project," like an art piece made with grandkids.
• Planning for an end-of-life vigil, including pain medication preferences, who they want in the room and whether they want people to tell funny stories.

Zoom in: Harmon is a board chair of the Minnesota Death Collaborative, which was launched in 2018 and has a statewide conference Sept. 27 with 125 attendees expected.

• The MDC's first conference was two years ago with 75 attendees.
• The field is growing "slower than some people would like," Harmon says. One factor is that death doulas aren't currently covered by insurance.

The bottom line: Frankly discussing and planning for death gives people more agency over how they die, instead of treating it as something that just happens to them, Harmon says.

• "I don't talk about transitioning and passing; I talk about dying and death," Harmon says. "Personally, I feel like those euphemisms are part of an old way of thinking, pretending that's not what it is."