Dying for Beginners - Catherine Shovlin

Dying for Beginners is a workbook for people who accept that their life will end, and who want to meet that reality with honesty, care, and agency.

This is not an abstract book about preparing to die. It is a practical, human guide for tending to what matters now. Making sense of what has been lived, naming what still feels unresolved, and putting into words the information and intentions that others will need after your death.

Many people complete this workbook alone; others use it with the support of carers, friends, or family. Either way, it is designed to move at your pace, on your terms.

Through clear prompts, Dying for Beginners helps you gather the practical details, personal wishes, and emotional truths that are often left unsaid-not as a burden, but as a gift.

The work is not about control or perfection, but about relief: the relief of knowing that what needs to be known has been handed over, and that those you leave behind will be supported by your care.

Written by a Death Coach with a background in humanitarian and End of Life Doula work, this book treats dying as a deeply human process, not as a purely medical or sentimental event. It respects complexity, allows for uncertainty, and makes room for both peace and ambivalence.

This workbook is an act of kindness to yourself.
And, in time, to those who will carry your life forward.