Jen Crow's transformation was triggered, quite literally, by a bolt of lightning. That jolt, which destroyed her home in a subsequent fire, forced her to consider what she really needed as she looked to rebuild her life. We see with the immediacy of someone who nearly lost it all that our possessions won't carry us. Our responses to the regrets, losses, separations, addictions, and unexpected twists and turns of our lives are shaped by the spiritual values that sustain us and the people who support us. We may not have control over the events - or illnesses - that come our way, but we do have control over how we respond to them. Shaping our own stories can enable us to make meaning that nurtures hope and resilience. In our time together, we will explore the expected and unexpected turns our lives can take—and all the ways we can pay attention to what we truly need to survive the painful moments and live lives of meaning. 

Learning Objectives:

• Support common emotional and spiritual needs of patients, families, and professionals caring for patients with serious illnesses and end-of-life. 
  • In particular - supporting spiritual and emotional capacity to hold complexity and tension (gratitude and grief, joy and pain, etc.), and identifying and increasing flexibility in spiritual framing of experiences of suffering. 
  • To increase flexibility as patients and caregivers review their lives, expanding the different narrative possibilities and understandings of key life events and their meaning. 
  • To provide emotional and spiritual support to professionals - recognizing that their experiences supporting patients, families, and caregivers at end of life can provoke spiritual and emotional questions, crises, and opportunities for intentional reframing of their own spiritual and emotional foundations.