Agents of Transformation: the Intersection of Birth, Breath, and Death

What lessons are present for us at the intersection of birth, breath and death? This is what Amy Wright Glen has been learning and then teaching for the past two decades. Amy’s doorway into this intersection was her early interest in—and college study of—religion and philosophy, which led to a teaching career that included a course Amy created and taught, called Myth and Ritual, which analyzed creation/destruction myths, hero’s journeys, and romance/sex/marriage myths from cultures around the world. Later trained as a birth doula and a chaplain, and a yoga teacher, Amy draws on her scholarship and also her mindfulness practices to support those in transition between identities. In 2015 Amy, following the red thread of her own desire for a gathering place for all who work at the thresholds of birth and death, founded the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. The Institute offers trainings, trips, retreats and monthly sessions that assist those of us who are bringing death back into the cycle of life, and holding breath-filled space for life’s most difficult, beautiful and powerful moments.

In our interview Amy speaks about the trainings she facilitates and co-facilitates. Amy Wright Glenn earned her MA in Religion and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her BA from Reed College in the study of Religion. Amy taught for eleven years in the Religion and Philosophy Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey earning the Dunbar Abston Jr. Chair for Teaching Excellence. She is a birth and death doula, hospital chaplain, Kripalu Yoga teacher, as well as founder of the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She has authored: * Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula, and * Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go. Amy has trained over 900 professionals in the work of holdings space for life’s transition. To learn more, visit: www.birthbreathanddeath.com And if you live in western NC, please consider joining us for Amy’s Institute Retreat the last weekend in October 2022. You can find more about that here: https://birthbreathanddeath.com/product/fall-institute-retreat/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmyWrightGlenn Twitter: https://twitter.com/amywrightglenn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birthbreathanddeath/