Franck Battelli

In my early teens, whilst traveling abroad with my grandparents, I found my grandfather wrapped in a towel sitting on the bathroom floor, having died from a heart attack after his shower.

This was my first time being exposed to death.

I remember the pain and the sorrow that our family went through at the time. For me, as a very young person, the childhood innocence was gone. Weeks and months passed and ultimately life resumed itself.

What was death? That question stayed with me until later in life when I was exposed to the Tibetan Buddhist training of Practicing to Die.  Subsequently I immersed myself over the next few years in wanting to know more about our own mortality and years into the process discovered “The Doula Approach”.

I believe a death where fear is absent or greatly diminished is accessible to everyone. Helping a dying person and their family navigate the last few months/weeks of one’s life is something that I embarked upon with humility and respect.

I was born in Southern France and have lived in Paris, New York City, Western MA, continued on to San Francisco where I met my wife of 20 years, eventually settling in Marin County since 1991 where I have embraced outdoors activities such as biking, hiking, running and camping.

I’ve had a penchant for Buddhism since my early twenties and became a practicing Buddhist for the past 15 years. I have a daily meditation practice .