Hi, my name is Josephine. Lux Solaris (Light of the Sun) is my house, it holds my offerings. You–yes, you, are welcome here. Love is cultivated here.

One of my purposes in life, and my primary mission, is to help other humans in navigating life and death in the ways that best serve them and as their purest and most free self. I do this, in part, through my work in massage therapy, sound healing, and end-of-life companionship and support.

I am at my best when holding space for people to be vulnerable, unburden, connect with their truest self, rest, heal, and grow. I am the someone who is in your corner–advocating for you, supporting you, nurturing you. We may be similar in some ways, or different in many ways. I welcome our connection as humans and deeply value learning about your story, path, perspective, and life.

Please feel free to reach out if you have questions about any of my services.

If you’d like to read a bit more about my history and path, keep reading…

I have spent much of my life walking alongside people during meaningful and often transitional times.
The current iterations of my work in people care—sound meditation facilitator and end-of-life doula—grew from a long history of people care, embodied practices, and a deep curiosity about the human experience: how we heal, how we change,and how we make meaning. Who we are.

Me, the sound pracitioner

I first encountered sound meditation as a participant, attending sound baths offered by others. While I
enjoyed them, it was a large gong concert in 2019—with nine gongs and players surrounding the room—that
really moved me deeply. I had a powerful, transformative experience that stayed with me long after it
ended. I knew that night that I wanted a gong to play for myself, that I wanted to learn much more about them,and that I wanted to find a teacher. Within the next 6 months, I had done so, and also came to realize that I enjoyed playing for others.

The gong was my first love in sound meditation and remains central to my work. I have expanded my learning and practice to include several other instruments. When I play sound
journeys, my intention is not to fix ( I cannot heal you), but to offer a soft place to land from the way I hold space, and sonic environment in which you can access your own healing space. A state of mind and being in which you feel held, settle deeply into yourself and your own inner journey.

Each experience is different, and sound meditation can also be a practice–the effects deepen with consistent journeying. My hope is that you leave feeling grounded, relaxed, and more
connected and empowered in your own self-tending and growth, having engaged deeply with yourself.

A life rooted in people care

In my early twenties (aka the 1990’s), I began a several year adventure of volunteering and working in health-center and community-based settings, supporting a huge variety of people (identities, cultures, walks of life) through complex life experiences. This work took several forms, including training and working as a birth doula-giving care and support during pregnancy, labor, and post-partum.

In 2009, I trained as a certified yoga instructor (because I wanted to better understand and deepen my own practice-I found out that I enjoyed teaching, too) and became a licensed massage therapist (because I was in a transitional time and signed up for a program on a bit of a whim–that whim turned out to be a highly gratifying study and career that I loved). I am a
veteran massage therapist, with many years of hands-on experience supporting people physically,
emotionally, and energetically.

Across all of these roles, one through-line has remained constant: I love walking with people in life as a supporter and caregiver, and especially through transitional times.

Me, the death doula

My path into end-of-life doula work was shaped by personal experience and reflection over many years. After
being present (death vigiling) with my grandfather during the last week of his life 2010, I began contemplating dying as a sacred and meaningful process, including my own. That time with him was so special to me, and i was so grateful to be able to be there and experience this incredible change, even in the midst of many other feelings. It felt so natural to hold his hand and talk to him as he was dying. To tend to him. To open the curtains and let light into the room. It was an incredibly peaceful time for me, even as I grieved.

After his death, then my maternal grandmother’s soon after, over years, I encountered people who shared their experiences with death and dying–massage clients with life-limiting diagnoses and chronic serious health conditions, people who worked in hospice, etc. I became motivate, subtly, more and more, to move in the world of caring for those who are facing death in a more present way than the rest of us.

In 2019, while preparing to volunteer in hospice, the week that I was scheduled to interview for a training program, my partner was diagnosed with stage-4 terminal cancer. I put my plans on hold to care for him, and during the years of illness that followed, deepened my understanding of what it can mean to support someone with a life-limiting diagnosis.

After two years of tried and ultimately failed treatments, periods of profound illness and being quite close to death, and numerous concurrent diagnoses , my partner was able to start a new medication fresh out of trial that changed his trajectory. He is still with us, and is in remission. We are beyond grateful.

As he became more and more stable, and we began re-engaging and rebuilding different aspects of our lives, I began training with the International End-of-Life Doula Asociation (INELDA)Doula Association, completing that program in 2023.

As a death doula, I offer non-medical (and non-therapist) support, advocacy, and steady presence for the person who is contemplating death, engaged in their own dying, or navigating the landscape of a terminal diagnosis. I am an ear, a validator, a meaningful question asker, a conversation facilitator, a vigil sitter, a doer of household tasks and errands, a companion, a helper with legacy projects, and all manner of other things. The more of this work I do, the more I realize how many things it can be, depending on what is needed that falls within my scope of practice. I also provide support to caregivers and loved ones-I do some holding of those who are holding the person who is dying. In working with me, you will find that I hold space for you gently and frankly, that I can meet your humor (see reverently irreverent, if that’s your thing), and I can meet you with wherever you find yourself emotionally in a given moment.

Other Me’s

Outside of my professional work and volunteering, I find joy, fun, and healing in bellydance, yoga, and qigong (the newest of these, and I am loving it). I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy books and media, cooking, hiking (which is walking) on nearby trails, birds (all animals, really, but…BIRDS!), and balancing my love of solitude with quality friend, family, and framily time. I also love my Chihuamutt, Anubis. He is nervous. He is mighty. And he makes me smile every day.

My Credentials

• Certified 200 hour Yoga Instructor
• Certified Gong Practitioner (teacher and long time therapeutic gong player from the Kundalini yoga tradition, Mehtab Benton)
• Licensed Massage Therapist
• INELDA trained EOL Doula
• Currently completing sound practitioner training with Hamid Jabbar (2026)
• Dedicated continuing and new education in my fields and independent study

Current Volunteering

Hospice Austin’s Christopher House (spending time with and supporting hospice patients and their loved ones at inpatient hospice with conversation, quiet presence, sound meditation, answering questions, practical tasks)

Direct Service Volunteer with Hospice Austin (visiting people on hospice service at home and providing companionship and practical support)