Marilynn Manzutto, MA
I am an end-of-life doula and psychopomp, and I provide emotional, spiritual, and end-of-life support for humans and pets.
I have an educational background in human services and counseling, and I graduated from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology with a Master’s degree in Forensic Psychology.
I have worked in the death care profession since 2008. I worked in a county coroner's office for more than a decade, and I currently serve as an intermittent federal employee as a member of National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) under Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORT) since 2012. I served in Puerto Rico after hurricanes Irma/Maria, and I supported the cruise ship repatriations of US citizens at the outbreak of Covid-19. I was awarded the Civilian Service Medal for my work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I volunteer as secretary on the boards of the National Home Funeral Alliance and the Funeral Consumer Society of Colorado.
With an understanding of the county and federal death care systems, I am aware of the challenges we face when we want to care for our own after death within those structures.
Additionally, through my work with the dead, I learned that we die the way we live, and most of us live according to societal norms and what’s been handed down via our ancestral lineage.
I have a lifetime of direct experience of being with people in extreme grief. I come from a family whose motto is “if we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist.” After more than 40 years of living in denial about my emotional truth, I chose to face what awaited me in those dark and uncomfortable spaces. I found that my personal and professional worlds overlapped in that the grief events that were present in my life were present in the lives of those I helped; divorce, broken and dysfunctional family patterns, fear of intimacy, natural death, suicide, personal abandonment, soul loss, disconnection from source, and a painful existence due to the heaviness of conditioning and shoulds.
All of this to say that when we choose to dig in there is light on the other side. Freedom is found in many places and facets. Emotions are the language of the soul, and I found that by beginning with visiting the destructive patterns present in my life, rejuvenation and rebirth awaited me in the spaces of authentic emotional expression. This is not being the victim of my story. The purpose and intention is, and was, to speak my truth and find ways to process what happened in order to release the past and be free. This is the active choosing to create what is desired rather than what we're conditioned to believe we should create.
Come play with me.
Let's explore together.
I want to help you feel and reclaim your heart.
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This program is for people who prefer to work one-on-one rather than in a group setting. The 7-session format utilizes the same proven materials as the group programs and can be completed in-person with a Grief Recovery Method Specialist specifically trained to help people move through loss with dignity and respect.