After two decades of professional event coordination for weddings, fashion shows, concerts, festivals and conferences, Anne-Marie halted everything to work with the elderly. Propelled by her work with the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers and her love of an elderly homeless man, she became a hospice volunteer in 2013. She continued her path of care as a licensed nurse assistant and worked with the elderly in residential care and as a private duty nurse. She was the only full time over-night “nurse” and cared for a home of 12 to 14 elderly residents. During this time she was also the director of Meals on Wheels in the capital of Vermont and studied community herbalism.
Anne-Marie’s is author of six books. Her first book Death Nesting which was self-published in 2019 won an Independent Publisher Book Award in 2020. Death Nesting was picked up by the publishing house Inner Traditions and was released in 2023,. In 2024 under its new title, Death Nesting The Heart-Centered Practices of A Death Doula the book won a gold, COVR Visionary Award . It was translated into Spanish first on her own and then again professionally under the title of Un nido de paz para la muerte. She is a Life Cycle Funeral Celebrant®, meditation and basic goodness instructor and has two decades of training in Shambhala Buddhist teachings and working with children and teens (ages 3-18) as a teacher at Karmê Chöling Meditation Center. She has studied Phowa with Anyen Rinpoche, completed multiple courses with Pema Chodron, and is certified through Lama Tsultrim Allione as a facilitator in the Buddhist track of Feeding Your Demons®, where her focus is on opening conversations with death. Anne-Marie has passed the National Home Funeral Alliance proficiency test, and has supported dozens of families through Family Directed Funerals, home burial and green burial in the state of Vermont.
BEYOND DEATHWORK
Anne-Marie's spiritual and practical influence from her Sámi and Celtic ancestry have powered her decades-deep meditation practice. A breast cancer diagnosis in 2023 propelled her intuitive healing abilities and group meditation and healing work. Her viewpoints are received as a profound, yet light and refreshing way of viewing the wholeness of the human experience. As a death doula educator she has taught hundreds of students around the world and led in-person retreats internationally. She is a mother of three and delights in time in nature, exploring the quantum and feeling alive.
PODCASTS, MEDIA, ARTICLES & REVIEWS
There are dozens out there! We're currently rebuilding this site. Please do a good old-fashioned google of "Anne-Marie Keppel" and see the goodies that come up :)
