Meet Andrea — Andrea Sexton Dumas

Hello and welcome to my corner of the internet. I’m glad you found me. My name is Andrea Sexton Dumas: Psychopomp / Death Doula, Grief Gardener and sensitive soul. My pronouns are she/her; you can call me Andrea (pronounced On-dray-uh), Drea or Dre. I am a Black, bi-racial cis female; additional aspects of self include my relationships as sister, niece, wife, aunt, friend, dog and cat caretaker.

As a young child I was shy and contemplative; I was artistic and loved to sing. Later in my teen years I became angry, moody and depressed.

Looking back, I can now identify what I was experiencing: grief.
My parents were disabled before they met; my dad, Mitch, died when I was 8 years old and my mom, Bev, died years later when I was in graduate school. Learning how to grieve has been fundamental in my unfolding as an mature, grounded adult.

I was born on and currently live on traditional, stolen Lisjan Ohlone land, known as Oakland-SF Bay Area in Northern California. The ancestral languages spoken here are Miwok and Chechenyo. As my relationship with this land deepens, this exchange invites me to learn more and more about the original inhabitants, human and other-than-human, and align myself to the land, air, water and space here.

“The archetype of the Deathwalker is an ancient soul-blueprint,
an internal compass that naturally equips people to guide and support
the living, the dying, and the dead at the threshold moments.”
-Sarah Kerr, The Centre for Sacred Deathcare

Formal credentials include:

- Clinical Certification as a Hypnotherapist from Hypnotherapy Clearing House (HCH), Lafayette, CA

- M.A. in Literature and B.A. in Creative Writing with a focus in Poetry, California State University, Long Beach

- Going with Grace End-of-Life Training Graduate, online

They say your website is your online avatar: a projection of who are you in a digital space. More and more, however, I reclaim “OI” - Original Intelligence. More human, less digital. Listening, intuiting, dreaming, singing, fingers in the dough and dirt. I’m perimenopausal and full of grief, both of which keep me honest.

I feel deeply, laugh loudly, and cry often. My heart is usually wide open, soft and tender, yet my tongue can be sharp. Sometimes I cuss.

My most poignant training and life-long mentorship comes through my paternal grandmother, Mother Dumas. She was a matriarch in the truest sense thru loving and encouraging children. She taught me how to cook, garden and pray, and most importantly how to be a good ancestor by being present with others. She died when I was 22 years old, a few weeks after my college graduation and her 99th birthday. Our relationship continues thru the veil.
I've also been guided and supported by a wide host of teachers, aunts, cousins, friends, podcasts, books and experiences, as well as my own dreamtime and connection with ancestors. The watchful eye of panther, the listening of owl, the fortitude of stone, and flow of water are a few of the lessons I’ve learned from our more-than-human kin.

To book 15-minute exploratory conversation, please submit the form below

Set 15-minute exploratory session

If you’d like to tip-toe into grief tending rituals, you’re most welcome to join Candle Hour,

a free online vigil on or around the New Moon of each month.

Thank you for being here.

I’m Andrea, your host.

Andrea Sexton Dumas