About the author

Julie Wright Halbert

A leading national voice for grief literacy. Death doula, end-of-life educator, transformational soul coach. Founder of Rising Phoenix LIFE. Mother of two.

Author of Live and Die Awake

Publishing November 4, 2026

The Sharon Fitzmaurice Podcast · with Sharon Fitzmaurice

Watch the whole conversation

In her own voice

Meet her in the middle of a conversation.

The opening is how we greet the pain. How we choose. Do we become the victim? Do we suffer? Do we sit in it? Or do we literally make a choice to greet it with kindness, with gratitude, and find a path back to our joy?

Julie Wright Halbert, on The Sharon Fitzmaurice Podcast.

Film · opens at 51:07

What's Your Story?

with Jaime Marco & Stan Brown

A three-way call, so she is one of three faces.

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Audio · opens at 14:31

Brave Widow Show

with Emily Tanner

The show publishes over its cover art, so this one is her voice.

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Audio · opens at 54:43

Every Widow Thing

with Whitney & Holly

The show publishes over its cover art, so this one is her voice.

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Three more are on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

See all seven

Podcast appearances

Julie has been a guest on these shows.

Julie Wright Halbert at a bamboo rail above a Balinese valley, looking out

The story

From the courtroom to a calling.

Julie practiced national education law for the Council of the Great City Schools for almost three decades, serving as Legislative Counsel on cases that reached the Supreme Court of the United States. Her work in that earlier career was covered by The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and The New York Times.

In 2018 her husband Jim was diagnosed with cancer. Three weeks later he was gone. He was 51. They were never told the time would be that short. In the years that followed Julie became a certified death doula, an end-of-life educator, and a transformational soul coach. She founded Rising Phoenix LIFE and began teaching what she had been forced to learn: that the way we meet death shapes the way we live.

She is the author of Live and Die Awake, a grief-literacy book that re-frames how we meet grief, loss, and death. Woven with guided meditations and journaling reflections, it walks the reader into a healing arc of their own.

Julie lives in Sarasota, Florida. She is the mother of two sons, Jacob and William.

Grief is not a problem to be solved.
It is a doorway opening into living, into the light.

The work now

What began as her own descent through profound loss became the foundation of her work guiding others through grief, healing, and life's deepest transitions.

She speaks nationally on grief literacy, conscious living, end-of-life awareness, and transformation through loss.

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Julie Wright Halbert speaking to a seated audience.

Credentials

Hospice Volunteer — Empath Tidewell Hospice, Sarasota, Florida.
Legislative Counsel — Council of the Great City Schools, 1994 to 2022.
J.D. with honors — University of Miami School of Law. B.A. with honors, University of Maryland. Admitted to the Federal Bar, the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and the Florida Bar.