About Michelle

Michelle Mondia, founder of the Thin Veil, is a death midwife of over ten years shifting the practice away from fear, isolation, and detachment towards promoting a deep connection to the end-of-life experience, where dignity, care, and emotional and spiritual support are at the forefront.

Michelle’s origin story as a death midwife started when, at 5 years old, she bore witness to how an entire village in the Philippines cared for her dying great-grandmother. This deep knowing was reignited after she gave birth to her two children at home with the help of a birth midwife, an experience that made her reflect on continuing the tender, loving, and sacred way of guiding someone at the other end of life’s spectrum.

She has since developed a practice that weaves in the practical aspect of dying while holding all the mystery death brings. Michelle sees her role as someone who helps slow down time and create space for the dying and their loved ones, enabling them to thin the veil and experience how to live into dying.

While Michelle is dedicated to empowering individuals and families to reclaim the end-of-life process, she’s also very aware that deep inequities exist in death and dying. In 2023, Michelle was awarded a Voqal Partners fellowship laying the foundation for the Death Workers’ Alliance, an organization bringing together EOL practitioners committed to working with and in marginalized communities on issues around end-of-life care.

Qualifications

• Certified by Sacred Crossings Death Midwifery Program

• Art of Thanatology certificate, NY Open Center

• Course completion of Herbal Support for EOL care with Sage Mountain Botanicals

• Foundations in Contemplative Care, NY Zen Center

• Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner College

• Masters in Public Health, Boston University

• B.A Psychology University of CA Berkeley

• Member of INELDA and NEDA

• License funeral director (in progress)