Witnessing. Connecting. Mentoring. Nourishing.

Within the safe container of a half-year, woman-made, online learning environment, you’ll be witnessed as a birth support professional and as a woman in the way you deserve. You’ll experience the holistic support you crave in the company of a soulful sisterhood.

When your job is supporting women before, during, and beyond their journey to motherhood, the stakes are high for everyone. As a helper and a healer supporting women in their most vulnerable and awe-inspiring moments, you pay an emotional, psychological, and spiritual price.

What Your Birth Support Training Program Didn’t Teach You

Doula and midwifery training programs lay important groundwork for the work you’ll do as a birth worker. And yet, there’s a missing piece: how to nourish and refill yourself and take care of your total life when your livelihood is caring for others. What seasoned doulas know that newer doulas don’t yet realize is how personally taxing this sacred work can be. And yet, we feel called to be of service. The connections you cultivate with women, their partners, and their babies make it all worth it.

However…

It’s extraordinarily difficult to come from a place of love and abundance when you are not filled up. You know your clients deserve your best, and you want to give them your best. But you long for a way to show up and serve that also affords you the time, space, and emotional bandwidth for your own deep nourishment and replenishment. You want a thriving practice, yes — but not at the expense of your soul and spirit.

The problem is more than a need for basic self-care, or for more self-care. The problem is at the level of soul, spirit, and community, and needs to be addressed as such.

The solution doulas yearn for is inherent in the gifts they provide for others.
It’s holistic. It’s organic. It’s ancient.

At Rise Doula, the approach is about soulful support and life fuel.

Rise Doula is mentoring that opens the possibility of recreating your work in the world from a more centered place. Imagine a type of intermediate or advanced training that goes beyond how to set up a satisfying practice and how to address client concerns, with an intention to transform the way you move in your life and in the world as a doula.

It’s about designing a life you love, not just a job you love.
It’s about falling in love with yourself as you fall in love with the work
(maybe for the second or third time in your life).
It’s about embodying the essence of what it means to be a doula or midwife.

Rise Doula fills the gaps in traditional midwifery, birth work, and doula training. If you’re a dedicated birth support professional seeking a better balance and more fulfillment in your life and your work, you’re in the right place.

“There is no territory I would not feel safe exploring with Reise. I know she will hold me compassionately wherever I need to go and with whatever I share. Reise brings an incredible presence, grace and strength to every coaching session. Her experience with coaching people is extremely evident as she has numerous tools in her tool belt but more importantly deep, compassionate but probing questions that meet me right where I am at and beckon me deeper into my soul and my healing journey. She is a master at her craft.” —Lexi Koch, Life Coach

Hi. I’m Reise Tanner, the creator of the Rise Doula experience.

As a professional doula, educator, and doula trainer with over 10 years experience, I’ve had the privilege of talking with hundreds of birth support professionals about their experiences both rich and raw (often both).

Here are the patterns and trends I see out there in our community of birth support professionals:

• incomplete or incomprehensive training; lack of an adequate bridge from theory/instruction to practice
• limited mentorship opportunities
• wishing they could find an apprenticeship or mentor to guide them and help them process client work
• not embodying the work they feel called to do
• high rates of burnout or turnover
• stuck in a martyr cycle, giving it all away without proper replenishment, even with many years of experience
• holding back in their work, charging very low fees, or failing to set boundaries because they don’t feel like they’re enough
• searching for (and not finding) a supportive community or circle where they feel they belong
• being told to “get out there” and “dive in headfirst” as a newbie, then experiencing metaphorical whiplash and aftershocks, shaken confidence
• very human mistakes creating a negative ripple effect in the community
• feelings of isolation, despite having a successful practice
• feeling uninspired, stuck, or perpetually depleted
• not attracting enough clients or the right-fitting clients, despite loving the work
• having trouble making an actual living; work “feels more like a hobby”
• not being sure whether to pursue birth work professionally, while feeling its importance in being a sister or friend
• not living in alignment with one’s own values or not giving unique expression to the work due to fear
• aspiring doulas afraid to take the leap, believing they don’t have enough training/experience
• discouraged doulas being told to keep their day job, but exhausted by living in both worlds

Every birth support person I’ve spoken with feels called to this work for a reason. And yet, through the haze of exhaustion, confusion, overworking, and/or underearning, so many of them have lost touch with joy, fulfillment, a sense of deep calling, and/or their core values.

“Reise has a presence and a peace about her with which my heart found a link. She empowered me as a woman, wife, and mother. She provided me with tools I had no idea I would put to use in my life, on a daily basis, so profound, and powerful. Unbeknownst to any of us, she was preparing me to be confident in myself as a mother. An advocate to listen and trust the Mama Lion that would radiate in my heart and fight fiercely. A wonderful part of working with Reise was the ability to share with acceptance. There were many fears I had, but her ability to listen as I shared, with confidence and love were invaluable.” —Renee Roquet

Rise Doula is a refreshing alternative to going it solo.

The good news is, you don’t need to do this alone.

Imagine how much more fulfilling your work could be with the right flavors of emotional and spiritual support. Rise Doula is masterfully facilitated to help you relax into your identity as a birth helper, in the company of other women who understand.

From a foundation of shared understandings and similar experiences, you’ll watch as a community blooms around you. Little by little, you’ll find yourself deepening into the truth of who you are and how you work, and you’ll find new ways to embrace the inner parts of you that need noticing, naming, tending to, and loving up.

There is space, time, and blessing for all of this inside Rise Doula.

Some say that growing in the birth support professions takes years and tears — years of birth stories and tears of happiness and elation, and of frustration, tiredness, and sometimes grief. At the heart of it, doula work is about facilitating transitions, and in transition, we witness both light and darkness. We experience the intensity of mixed emotions, our clients and our own.

Rise Doula can’t fast-forward all practical aspects of your growth. It’s not a replacement for getting up close and personal with your own clients. Nor would you want it to be. The hands-on, hearts-in work is where the richness is. But while you’re growing, it’s essential to stop and honor where you are in this moment. As you know from working with the women you serve, it’s important to honor the value of NOW, to see what this present moment has to teach you.

Rise Doula can help you:

• eliminate the isolation you feel, by bringing you into warm and present community
• reduce the unknowns in new client experiences, by connecting you to the personal stories and tried and true wisdom of other doulas
• witness, affirm, and nurture yourself as a helper and a healer
• help you rewrite your own stories about professional service, being a helper/healer, and your identity as a woman
• release limiting patterns and beliefs that lead to giving too much away

No matter how long you’ve been doula’ing, my intention is to help you create here-and-now professional experiences that give back to you even more than you invest, that feel wholehearted, and that are supportive of who you are, on and off the job.

Who I Am

For over a decade now, I’ve been a practicing doula who has immersed herself in midwifery training. My work has led me into positions of leadership. Like most doulas, I had to figure it all out on my own, and I did that by (at first) piling on trainings and seeking out master teachers. Fortunately, I was inspired to join the San Francisco Doula Group at just the right time, and that’s where I first found sisterhood within the profession. During an auspicious season, I got to witness and support SFDG’s growth, change, and development, and my involvement led to speaking engagements as a presenter and panelist. I received life-affirming, transformative training and mentorship from Birthing from Within™ , a renowned and innovative approach in the profession. And I’ve augmented the core of my practice with tools I’ve gained from teaching yoga, from my life coach training and certification, from practicing various hands-on healing modalities, from my own mindfulness study and practice, and from traveling the world and experiencing different cultures up close and personal.

Through the years, I’ve grown my doula practice through authentic service, fortuitous connections, following my curiosity, pursuing unique opportunities, and from listening to and learning from my clients. I’ve observed that most doulas want to grow a thriving practice that aligns with a life that feels good, all the way through.

I noticed that this approach uplifts everyone, and I felt called to support others in this sacred work. And so, years ago, I began to apply tools I use in my own life and with clients to mentor and support other helpers.

Rise Doula is the work of my heart. I get excited just writing and thinking about it because I know what a unique and necessary environment it is for women. I incubated the idea for several years and first facilitated it within a live circle setting. Feedback from the few rounds of participants was that the experience was transformative and nurturing — something they were yearning for. I could see it was important to share this work online, so that women all over the world could have it, too.

It’s my honor to invite you to Rise Doula, this holistic, life integration experience for birth professionals.

Here’s exactly what you get for your investment in this life integration program for doulas:

• 12 thematic modules paced over 6 months, one released every other week. I find this to be the ideal amount of time for deep learning and integration of the Rise Doula curriculum.
• Modules are comprised of audio or video, a personal practice, helpful worksheets, and supplemental material to extend or deepen your learning.
• A live monthly Q&A Call, to be recorded for listening at your convenience
• A supportive Facebook group where participants can connect, ask questions, start conversations, share experiences, empathize, and witness one another
• Guest Teacher Interviews to offer fresh perspectives and further enrich your learning, including talks with innovative thinkers, master teachers and seasoned professionals from midwives to neuroscientists, doulas to authors. Among our speakers are Yeshi Neumann, Carol Gray, Jane Austin, Pam England, Mark Brady, Rick Hanson; more bonus teachers and topics to be announced
• Inspiring Love Notes sent to your inbox every other week
• Weekly Live Office Hours in the Facebook group for individualized coaching and tailored insight
• OPTIONAL OFFER: Add on two private coaching sessions for $180 — a great opportunity to work with me (Reise) personally outside of the group setting.

When you’ve been continuously over-providing, the journey back to feeling whole, nourished, and centered in your authentic truth can be a lonely one. Leaving depletion behind may feel like an endless road. But it doesn’t have to feel that way, and you don’t have to go it alone.

I’ve designed Rise Doula for women seeking something more from their doula practice than simply more clients and more revenues. This intermediate-to-advanced, mentoring-style doula program exists to support the deeper work so many women feel called to do. This work is spiritual, it’s sacred, and it’s powerful. I’ve created a place for you, for all of us, to do this work together.

Here’s some of what you might be experiencing right now in your professional and personal life. Rise Doula supports women in these exact scenarios:

• compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, frustration
• burnout, depletion, overworking, underearning
• isolation, doing this on your own; having to figure it all out alone or being unwilling/unable to be vulnerable amongst peers; lack of community or finding yourself in a gossipy judgmental environment
• longing for women’s sacred spaces and/or a welcoming community where you can openly process experiences
• hungry for and wanting to incorporate the spiritual and/or emotional side of this work; desire to call upon the divine feminine but feeling risk and vulnerability around that, or not sure how to do it
• boundary issues with clients; not attracting right-fitting clients; boundaries and other issues coming up with other care providers/medical establishment
• lacking the right kind of support from loved ones
• excited and inspired, roaring to go — just wanting or needing a boost or some clear direction
• need to grow in confidence or take the next step to integrate theory into practice and into your own life
• trapped in a holding pattern or beleaguered by perfectionism, not enoughness (“Who am I to do this?” “I need to learn more first.”)
• interrupted by motherhood, caregiving, or a big life transition and figuring out how to do this in a way that is sustainable, or how to re-enter your practice without going back to the beginning
• want to work on yourself in this way but need a guide/mentor/community that really ‘gets’ it, so you feel held; experience with failed attempts to get the right support; disappointment or sense of loss
• entranced by the idea of taking your doula work deeper — going towards the mystery

Do you recognize yourself in the list above? If so, you share a lot in common with other women who have enrolled in this program.

So if the road ahead feels daunting, my reminder to you is this: start where you are, right this moment. Let me, and the sisterhood of women gathering here, doula you.

“It’s rare that my highly skeptical brain feels overwhelmingly positive about any person, class, method, etc, but I did with Reise.” —Carin Marrs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

I believe in transparency around expectations and shared assumptions. In that spirit, here are some questions I’ve been asked about Rise Doula, along with my answers.

I’m not a doula but I teach prenatal yoga, do prenatal massage, am a midwife/nurse/lactation counselor. I struggle with much of what you describe on this page. Will the Rise Doula material apply to me?

Yes. While the name of the course (Rise Doula) is designed to call out a professional community I identify with and have done deep work within, the nature of the material is entirely appropriate for any woman who professionally supports other women around the journey to motherhood. We’ll focus more on our commonalities as professionals and as women than we will any differences, though where there are difference we will name, explore, and honor them. I think you’ll find the program content to be very applicable to your unique experiences.

This program represents an investment for me. Will Rise Doula help me make more money?

Quite possibly but this outcome is neither promised nor guaranteed. Some past participants have named financial solvency in their business as an outcome of going through the program. However, Rise Doula is NOT a program specifically about running a business, marketing, or managing business finances. It could be that your work inside Rise Doula will help you to earn more, but that may not be your outcome.

I understand the frustration of having invested money already in becoming a doula and it not having paid off or having to explain/justify it to a partner. Diving into doula work is a big leap of faith and is hard to do while holding on to a more traditional career with predictable income. So investing in Rise Doula may feel like an even bigger leap. I believe that the curriculum is beneficial for every aspect of your practice, from your relationships with clients to embodying the work at a deeper level to how you position yourself in the marketplace. I make no guarantees about specific results, as each individual and each business is unique. I believe every woman can grow inside this experience.

Does Rise Doula offer a certificate that counts toward my professional accreditation?

Rise Doula offers a blend of personal and professional development, and at this time, it is not affiliated with any certifying organization. I hope this will be freeing to you, as you’ll be able to align what you learn here with any pre-existing approach or method that’s important to you, as well as to your professional and personal growth, holistically.

I’m seasoned in my profession. Can Rise Doula support me in the ways that I need?

Hello, wise woman. 🙂 I honor your experience and I sense you may have a buried belief that you should be able to do this on your own, that you should have this down by now, or that you could do this work on your own (but haven’t for one reason or another). Maybe fear is coming up for you around being vulnerable or feeling exposed. Maybe you’re already confident in your experience and know you have the tools. Or you’re worried you won’t learn anything new. I hear you. While I really want you to make the decision that feels right for you all the way through, I also want to assure you that Rise Doula is intended for doulas at intermediate to advanced levels of practice. The work we’ll do is holistic in nature, with an emphasis on depth, nuance, and lived experience. Your seasoned perspective will be welcome, and we invite you to grow, stretch, and transform as a woman and a doula alongside other birth workers with fewer years of practice. Perhaps it’s time to let yourself be doula’ed.

I’m so busy and yet I want to participate. How much time will Rise Doula require of me?

It’s natural before taking a new journey to worry over things like time. After all, in our fast-paced culture, time feels like a true commodity. Remember what the wise woman inside you knows: that time is elastic and at some level, an illusion. If you’re not sure you’ll have the time to participate, or that being on call will prevent you from being present or cause you to miss out, remember that this is an online experience. I’ve built it specifically for women with very full schedules! That’s why the materials, including group discussions, are downloadable to your own device(s) and that way, will always be available. Even if you have special circumstances like a new baby, an upcoming wedding, going back to school, caretaking a parent/spouse, or travel, Rise Doula will help you grow in presence and spaciousness for all of these life transitions, too. There’s space for it.

That said, you can expect to get the most return from Rise Doula by planning to give about 1-2 hours per week, though you may choose to spend more time connecting and conversing in the Facebook group.

To be honest, I’m unsure whether doula work is for me for the long term. Is this program worth my time and investment?

Perhaps you’re still debating about the path to doula work or birth work. Maybe you’re attracted to it but still working through whether it’s a fit, and so, it feels hard to invest more. Or maybe you’re already in the profession but are unclear whether you’ll continue practicing. The nature of the deep work we’ll do inside Rise Doula will support your own self-inquiry. These are skills we continue to develop our whole lives long, and that we use in every aspect of personhood, beyond our doula work.

Questions I haven’t answered here? Drop me a note and I’ll be in touch with you soon.

How To Enroll and What Happens Next:

Click the Sign Up Now button to enroll. You’ll register and make payment through the online shopping cart, where you can choose credit card or PayPal. You’ll have the choice to pay in full and save or pay in monthly installments. You will also be asked to provide your email address during the checkout process.

Watch your inbox for a Confirmation email (there’s a link inside you must click) and a Welcome email about next steps. Please be sure to read all emails carefully, as they contain important information about receiving program materials, access to our Facebook group, start dates, and actions you may need to take.

If you run into a snafu at any stage of the process, just drop me a note and I’ll be sure to take care of you.

There’s one last thing I’d like to share with you …

I created Rise Doula for you. I created it for the me of the past, she who filled her plate so full with trainings and certifications, trying to feel prepared, and ran herself ragged over-caretaking and under-attending to what was underneath. Attending to what’s underneath is necessary to grow into whatever it is you desire. Who better to support you in this importan work than someone who has been holding space for others to do that in birth and in life. Holding space for others is my superpower. It would be my honor to do that for you.

A Note About My Guarantee

When you enroll in Rise Doula, I personally guarantee that you’ll receive the very best of my teaching, wisdom, experience, and insight to support you in your journey. I bring my all to this experience because I want it to be one of the best professional-meets-personal growth journeys you’ll ever take. I don’t make that promise lightly. I hold myself responsible to the community of women I serve, and I honor your investment in this experience with all that I have to give. Participants will be at different stages of professional and personal development, so results will absolutely vary. For this reason, I do not offer refunds.

“Reise has a perfect mix of warmth, spiritual/mindful sensibilities, medical knowledge, and experience to reassure me she is an outstanding guide no matter which way my path turns.” —Tessa Pupius