"RETURNING TO YOURSELF IN THE MIDST OF CARE-GIVING" A special retreat for those companioning the dying Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND Aug 28-31, 2008 Price: $745 (possibiliy of C.E.U.s) Includes: Tuition, 3 nights lodging, sauna, kayaks and all delicious health-conscious meals from our garden and local waters. Not included: tax, transportation to Homer and water taxi to Halibut Cove. Spiritual direction, massage, guided hiking, and kayaking will also be available.

A retreat for all those whose life leads them to be with those who are dying:

doctors, nurses, pastoral care, Hospice, spiritual directors, home health care and those who companion partners, siblings, children and close friends in their dying.

 

Our time together will include times of input, quiet reflection, small and large group sharing and rest.

Some of us have chosen as our life’s work to attend the dying; others have had this foist upon them through life’s circumstances. Which ever the case, it is easy to find ourselves overwhelmed by the daily demands that accompany this work.

In an atmosphere of beauty and quiet we will explore questions such as:

• What can we do when we find ourselves, quite literally, being torn apart, separated from ourselves?
• In the midst of the daily demands related to our care-giving, how do we affirm and maintain our own Center?
• How can we live in the deep confidence that we are enough?

Together we will:

• examine the fears, assumptions, and expectations that dull our hearts and take us away from ourselves as we seek to be present to others.
• explore practices that can support our simple open presence even in, perhaps especially in, the face of our own pain and sense of inadequacy as we companion the dying person.
• find skillful means that might assist our simple open presence as we companion the dying. 

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Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND, has ministered in the area of spirituality for over thirty years, offering spiritual direction and retreats in the contemplative tradition and directing a program for spiritual directors. Having worked at Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation for many years, she retains the title of Shalem’s Senior Fellow for Spiritual Guidance.

Rose Mary has had considerable experience in accompanying the dying as friend, daughter, sibling, spiritual director, and hospice volunteer. She currently works as a volunteer at Joseph’s House, a hospice for formerly homeless men who have AIDS, and offers retreats and workshops for hospice care givers and those who companion the dying. In 2006 she completed the Alaya Institute End-of-Life Counselor Program, an outgrowth of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco.

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