Catherine Birdsall
Catherine Birdsall RN CRNP (She/Her) I grew up in a rural community in the shadow of Mt. Monadnock in NH, where birth, aging, and death were intimate experiences for me. Funerals often took place at home and were beautiful and sacred community affairs which felt like a natural part of the life cycle. After working for many years as a Hospice Nurse then Geriatric Nurse Practitioner in Philadelphia area retirement communities and gaining extensive knowledge of institutional deathcare, I decided to leave clinical practice to be able to support dying people and their communities more holistically. I am a certified Herbalist with an Earth-Centered and Yucatec Maya based healing practice, Death Midwife, Flower Essence Practitioner, and Grief Support Specialist. I co-founded Threshold Collective with Dr. Rebecca Maury in order to meet all those who are experiencing death with depth, presence, and awareness. As part of our mission, we host cultural events which explore grief and loss, and we will soon be opening a ‘death store’ with end of life and grief resources out of our office in The Maas Building in North Philadelphia.
Awarded Grants
2023
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Naila Francis and Catherine Birdsall’s project, The Five Gates of Grief, is a three-day multidisciplinary, interactive experience centered around grief awareness and support for individuals and communities with limited access and resources to grief care. This project will invite disenfranchised grievers – such as healthcare workers, nonprofit service providers, and community organizers working in gun violence prevention – into a communal experience of expressing their losses. Through visual art, sound, movement, and group interaction and ritual, this project will offer an inclusive grief space that subverts established cultural ideas around grief and loss as a private, insular experience to be moved through quickly.