Confronting death, finding community: Understanding the value of the Death Café

= 19), and 12 of them completed semi-structured interviews. Death taboo increased in the comparison condition but not in the Death Café condition, and death anxiety did not change. Six themes emerged: confronting the death taboo, safe and supportive community, learning from others, coping with death and dying, living life more fully, and wanting the conversation to continue. Some participants described enduring personal benefits, but the communal experience of participation pervaded their accounts. Participants described how openly discussing mortality facilitated that communal experience. These findings are most consistent with community-oriented accounts of the Death Café.