Events

OCTOBER 15-18, 2010

FRIDAY-REGISTRATION 9:30-PROGRAM 10:00-5:30
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY-9:00-5:30
MONDAY: 9:00-1:30
TENZIN GYATSO INSTITUTE, BERNE, NY

In the practice of healing, a kind heart is as valuable as medical training, because it is the source of happiness for both oneself and others. People respond to kindness even when medicine is ineffective, and in turn cultivating a kind heart is a cause of our own good health.

  -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Responding effectively to the needs of patients remains an on-going professional and deeply personal challenge. Compassion and Presence offers the opportunity to learn contemplative resources that support you in your life and work, and enhance the way you offer care - with a renewed sense of joy, confidence, and fulfillment. Drawing from meditations taught in the wisdom tradition of Tibet, this training focuses on cultivating presence and mindfulness, and deepening the capacity for compassion, so that you can remain present, spacious and loving in the face of suffering.

The training introduces insights and contemplations from Sogyal Rinpoche's groundbreaking book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and demonstrates in practical ways how to appropriately integrate these practices of meditation, contemplative listening, and compassion in any medical setting.

Compassion and Presence is for anyone who cares for others in hospice, palliative care, critical care, gerontology, oncology, general medicine, nursing, emergency medicine, pastoral care, psychology, social work, health care education, and other allied health professions. It will resonate with professionals and volunteers from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds.

The training focuses on five core competencies:

• Holding authentic presence and communication.
• Deepening one's ability to extend compassion toward oneself and others.
• Developing a personal understanding of suffering, and how to be present with suffering.
• Understanding the spiritual dimension of living and dying, and its relationship to caregiving.
• Applying contemplative practices for self-care.

Training Modalities
Modalities presented include lectures, discussion, writing, periods of contemplative practice, and interactive methods for integrating learning.

Training Topics

• Spirituality and healthcare Ð an introduction to the spiritual care model of compassionate care
• Cultivating presence through meditation and mindfulness practice
• Methods for deepening compassion
• Responding to suffering
• Training in contemplative listening
• The spiritual dimension of life and death
• Creating a sacred environment
• Compassionate self-care for alleviating stress, healing burnout, and transforming challenging situations
• Caregiving as spiritual practice
• Scientific research on the benefits of training in meditation and compassion in medical care work.

Christine Longaker, Education Director, Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program Former director and staff trainer of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County in California, Christine has provided hospice trainings internationally since 1978. She has been instrumental in developing Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program, and serves as its International Education Director. She co-designed and serves as faculty for Naropa University's accredited training in 'Contemplative End-of-Life Care', and is author of Facing Death and Finding Hope: A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying, which is translated into nine languages.

Kirsten DeLeo, MA, International Training Manager and Senior Educator, Spiritual Care Education Program Drawing from more than fifteen years' experience accompanying people in the last phase of life, Kirsten leads trainings for professionals and the public, and is faculty for Naropa University's 'Contemplative End of Life Care' training. She is a counselor specializing in spiritual care, and in supporting people living with illness. Kirsten completed a three-year meditation retreat under the guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche and is a Senior Meditation Instructor in Rigpa.

Pam Russell, LMSW, Senior Educator, Spiritual Care Education Program Pamela is an end-of-life care social worker and bereavement counselor with over twenty years' experience in elder care in long-term care facilities. She is faculty for Naropa University's 'Contemplative End of Life Care' training, and a Rigpa meditation instructor.

Fee: $395
Lunch provided daily; fee collected on site

Click here for Registration.

For Scholarship or CEU Information please email usa@spcare.org or call 1-866-511-2273.

For Location Information and a List of Local Accommodations visit: www.tenzingyatsoinstitute.org and click on "Upcoming Events".

To download a flyer, click here.