About
The Ritual Bough is dedicated to working with you to meet your ritual and ceremony, end-of-life, and after death needs.
The Ritual Bough specializes in:
- Ritual and Ceremony: we will collaborate with you to mark important life events and transitions with personalized ritual or ceremony to meet your needs. Individual or group rituals and ceremonies can be designed to honor births, marriages, divorces, promotions, adoptions, naming, graduations, and any other transitional and significant events.
- End-of-Life Planning: we can walk with you through advanced healthcare directive options, designing and creating a legacy project, or other end-of-life planning activities. End-of-life planning can be done at any life stage and can be liberating for you and your loved ones.
- After Death Care: we provide education and guidance about natural death care options, and family-directed home funerals. We can guide you through the process of planning and carrying out a home funeral for your loved one that fits with your religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.
Please note - we provide many of the services above for animal companions, as well!
Meet The Ritual Bough:
Julie is your ritual specialist and home funeral guide. She has lived in Alaska for over 20 years. Julie is a certified Funeral Celebrant, Death Midwife, End-of-Life Doula, and is NEDA proficient. She has studied with Sacred Crossings, Final Passages, and the University of Vermont End-of-Life Doula program. Julie is an ordained Reverend (non-denominational) and has graduate degrees in anthropology (MA, PhD) and northern studies (MA).
Geographical Service Area
The Ritual Bough is based in Girdwood, Alaska. We are proud to serve clients around the state, and outside Alaska. In-person services are generally, though not exclusively, limited to south-central Alaska (within reasonable driving-distance of Girdwood). We also provide remote, virtual services (via the phone, Zoom or other platforms). Please contact us for an appointment so we can determine if in-person or virtual services will work best.
Free 20-minute phone consultations
The Ritual Bough offers free, 20-minute phone or online consultations to explore your needs and help assess how we can work together.
Fees
Our work with you - be it composing and conducting a ritual or ceremony for your life event, assisting with end-of-life planning, or designing a home funeral - is all catered to your individual needs and desires. Our fees are dependent on the level of services you request. Please reach out to The Ritual Bough to schedule an in-depth consultation appointment and we can provide you an estimate for services.
What if my loved one or pet companion has just died?
We are so sorry for your loss.
If you are in immediate need of home funeral services, please call us. We will do our best to provide assistance, but please know that depending on your circumstances, we may not be able to provide same-day home funeral services.