Sally Gabriel, PhD, is a dedicated health and lifestyle coach as well as a certified end-of-life doula and grief educator, taking on a uniquely holistic career that proactively builds healthy and longer lives while also caring for those at the end of their lives.
Gabriel owns Epilogue End of Life Care, which provides non-medical end-of-life and grief support, and Second Act Weight Loss, where she guides clients in overcoming weight loss challenges and emotional eating.
With a broad and diverse background in health, finance, and gerontology, Gabriel uses her wealth of experience to help people navigate their pursuit of long-term health and to meet life’s final stages with dignity.
Helping People Reframe Their Lives and Deaths
After earning her doctorate in holistic nutrition in 2011, Gabriel became a certified health and lifestyle coach and founded Second Act Weight Loss in 2012. Her philosophy around weight management focuses on reframing clients’ perceptions of food and body image, helping them engage with nutrition more constructively and healthfully. Gabriel expanded her health career in 2022 by founding Epilogue End of Life Care, a service that provides emotional, spiritual, and logistical support to people facing the final stages of their lives. In 2024, she received training as a grief educator and also supports people who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
Gabriel also works in the community surrounding her profession. She is a co-founder of the Sarasota Area End-of-Life Doula Collective, a group of death doulas who advocate for the role of doulas in providing compassionate care. Gabriel has become a strong advocate for destigmatizing discussions surrounding the final stages of life and death.
Gabriel strives to increase awareness of the role of death doulas and to ensure that individuals and families are prepared to approach the end of life with dignity, peace, and clarity. Her vision includes providing educational resources to help people and health professionals create a collaborative space to explore end-of-life issues with comfort and understanding.
Promoting Conversations on Life and Death in the Community
One such supportive environment takes the form of “death cafes,” which function as spaces where people can safely and openly “engage in candid discussions about death and dying.” Gabriel also holds workshops on advanced care planning and grief, all part of her effort to reframe death and grief as a natural part of life’s journey that people can approach with confident, informed preparation.
Working to improve lives from their early years to their end, Gabriel served as a mentor for low-income children through Take Stock in Children Sarasota for 13 years and continues to volunteer as an end-of-life doula for Tidewell/Empath Hospice in Sarasota. In addition to her advocacy for enhancing wellness and end-of-life care services in her local community, she has distinguished herself through her work as a grief educator.
From helping children find opportunities to guiding adults toward healthier living to advancing the cause of dignified end-of-life and grief care, Gabriel is working to impact every phase of life for those in her community.
