Past 2022 Events
January 12, 2022 - Effectively navigating our health care system
Greg Kutcher, M.D. - ZOOM 7-8:30 CST
In both our health care system, and more broadly in our culture at large, at the core, we value diagnosis, treatment, and cure. We define the journey as a battle. Normalizing death as a part of life is often delayed until the very end––when there is a few weeks, days, or hours. This is not a process well suited to well-being and compassion.
Yet, the pull of health care is strong, the process is complex, and as a result, the person with a life threatening illness may be limited in their consideration of goals and options. MNDC members are not focused on a role as a health care provider, nor do they give medical advice, yet with insight into the underlying assumptions guiding our approach to health care, they may be able to listen and watch for clues indicating a person is “blocked” in giving a wider consideration to their options.
Topics included are:
Greg Kutcher, M.D. - ZOOM 7-8:30 CST
In both our health care system, and more broadly in our culture at large, at the core, we value diagnosis, treatment, and cure. We define the journey as a battle. Normalizing death as a part of life is often delayed until the very end––when there is a few weeks, days, or hours. This is not a process well suited to well-being and compassion.
Yet, the pull of health care is strong, the process is complex, and as a result, the person with a life threatening illness may be limited in their consideration of goals and options. MNDC members are not focused on a role as a health care provider, nor do they give medical advice, yet with insight into the underlying assumptions guiding our approach to health care, they may be able to listen and watch for clues indicating a person is “blocked” in giving a wider consideration to their options.
Topics included are:
- Understand common patterns for disease progression and why patients and doctors struggle to talk about it.
- The nature of hope––learning from those that have lived the journey
- Looking for clues that patients want to open the conversation.
- How to legitimize their concerns––question to ask, words to use, suggestions to make.
- As an advocate, what challenges are you having?
BIO
Greg Kutcher, M.D. is a family physician and health care leader focused on understanding our cultural values that drive health care. He is keen to contribute to the diverse, broad-based efforts aimed at transforming our system into one that is more balanced and humanistic.
His insights are rooted in his experience in community medicine. He received his M.D and family medicine training at the University of Minnesota and practiced a full range of family practice for 36 years in Mankato, Minnesota––taking care of people through their life span, including hospital, obstetrics, and pediatrics. His perspective on health care is infused with the experiences and feedback from patients and the communities he served.
February 9, 2022 - Community call with Day Schildkret/Morning Altars
ZOOM 7-8:30 CST
BIO - Day Schildkret is internationally renowned as the author, artist and teacher behind the Morning Altars movement, inspiring tens of thousands of people to make life more beautiful and meaningful through ritual, nature and art. BuzzFeed calls his work, “a celebration of nature and life.
With nearly 100K followers on social media and sold-out workshops, installations, trainings, and public speaking events worldwide, Day is a thought-leader devoted to healing the culture by teaching people to ritualize the big and small moments of our work and our lives.
Day is the author of the up-coming book, Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration and Change (Simon Element), hitting #1 on Amazon for two days straight, as well as the author of Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual (Countryman Press).
His work has been featured on NBC, CBS, Buzzfeed, Vice, Well+Good, My Modern Met and four times in Spirituality & Health Magazine.
Links:
Website: https://www.morningaltars.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morningaltars
Instagram: http://instagram.com/morningaltars
ZOOM 7-8:30 CST
BIO - Day Schildkret is internationally renowned as the author, artist and teacher behind the Morning Altars movement, inspiring tens of thousands of people to make life more beautiful and meaningful through ritual, nature and art. BuzzFeed calls his work, “a celebration of nature and life.
With nearly 100K followers on social media and sold-out workshops, installations, trainings, and public speaking events worldwide, Day is a thought-leader devoted to healing the culture by teaching people to ritualize the big and small moments of our work and our lives.
Day is the author of the up-coming book, Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration and Change (Simon Element), hitting #1 on Amazon for two days straight, as well as the author of Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual (Countryman Press).
His work has been featured on NBC, CBS, Buzzfeed, Vice, Well+Good, My Modern Met and four times in Spirituality & Health Magazine.
Links:
Website: https://www.morningaltars.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morningaltars
Instagram: http://instagram.com/morningaltars
March 9, 2022 - MNDC March Restorative practices with Amy Samson-Burke
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Take a night off to practice simple activities for your own wellbeing that you will be able to practice on your own and share with clients. Please wear loose fitting clothes and have a yoga mat/blanket and chair availble.
BIO:
Amy Samson-Burke, a Physical Therapist for over 30 years and Professional Yoga Therapist, is Director of Programs at the non-profit Mind Body Solutions in Minneapolis. She has spent the past decade developing mind-body programs for professional healthcare providers in multiple settings including women’s care, critical care, primary care, pediatrics, and end of life care. Amy has a special interest in bringing yogic practices to those at the end of life and has developed the Living ‘til the End Program, bringing connection and ease to people in a time of uncertainty. Amy is also passionate about sustainability in healthcare, finding ways to nourish both the patients and the caregivers by using a mind-body approach.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Take a night off to practice simple activities for your own wellbeing that you will be able to practice on your own and share with clients. Please wear loose fitting clothes and have a yoga mat/blanket and chair availble.
BIO:
Amy Samson-Burke, a Physical Therapist for over 30 years and Professional Yoga Therapist, is Director of Programs at the non-profit Mind Body Solutions in Minneapolis. She has spent the past decade developing mind-body programs for professional healthcare providers in multiple settings including women’s care, critical care, primary care, pediatrics, and end of life care. Amy has a special interest in bringing yogic practices to those at the end of life and has developed the Living ‘til the End Program, bringing connection and ease to people in a time of uncertainty. Amy is also passionate about sustainability in healthcare, finding ways to nourish both the patients and the caregivers by using a mind-body approach.
April 13, 2022 - Advanced Health Care Directives with Laurel Riedel
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Many of us are familiar with the importance of Advanced Health Care Directives. Tonight, Laurel will explore some of the special needs as it relates to navigating directives for solos, folks with dementia, Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST), Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)
Bio - For 30 years, Laurel Riedel guided women and families through the miracle and mystery of birth as a nurse midwife at Hennepin County Medical Center. She also cared for both of her parents through the challenges of aging and dementia while also taking on the role as their Health Care Agent. She was at each their bed sides during their final days.
Being deeply invested in the transitions into and out of life, her passion now is to help people write thoughtful Health Care Directives, and more importantly, to befriend the conversations about end of life.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Many of us are familiar with the importance of Advanced Health Care Directives. Tonight, Laurel will explore some of the special needs as it relates to navigating directives for solos, folks with dementia, Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST), Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)
Bio - For 30 years, Laurel Riedel guided women and families through the miracle and mystery of birth as a nurse midwife at Hennepin County Medical Center. She also cared for both of her parents through the challenges of aging and dementia while also taking on the role as their Health Care Agent. She was at each their bed sides during their final days.
Being deeply invested in the transitions into and out of life, her passion now is to help people write thoughtful Health Care Directives, and more importantly, to befriend the conversations about end of life.
May 11, 2022 - After Death Care: for those grieving the loss of a
loved one and for caring professionals with Carolyn Vinup
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Learn how Sacred Sound can help you release grief, heal pain, and feel deeply relaxed, restored, and renewed.
What you will learn:
loved one and for caring professionals with Carolyn Vinup
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Learn how Sacred Sound can help you release grief, heal pain, and feel deeply relaxed, restored, and renewed.
What you will learn:
- A Grounding and Centering Exercise.
- How Sound as a healing modality, releases grief and can help heal physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual pain after losing a loved one.
- Self-Care for Care Professionals, the healing tones from the Crystal Singing Bowls invite deep states of relaxation for restoration and renewal.
- Sound Healing on the Go: Home, Hospital, Hospice.
- Experience a Guided Sound Meditation with the Crystal Singing Bowls
- Closing Exercise
June 8, 2022 - The Value of Death: A palliative care physician's journey into her own terminal disease and beyond - Joanne Roberts, MD
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Joanne has practiced medicine for 35 years, about 20 of those as a palliative care physician and hospice medical director. She retired last summer as the chief medical officer for Providence, a large health system on the West Coast, and a few months later was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a "pre-leukemic" cancer. She will share her learnings as a physician for those near life's end, and then share what she has had to unlearn and re-learn as she looks toward her own death.
"There is a gap that exists -- and will always exist -- between medicine and patients facing terminal illness, and it is only by facing -- even embracing -- our own deaths will we build bridges across that gap," she has written. She will be joined in our discussion by Janet Brown and Wendy Brown, both of whom are walking this journey with her.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Joanne has practiced medicine for 35 years, about 20 of those as a palliative care physician and hospice medical director. She retired last summer as the chief medical officer for Providence, a large health system on the West Coast, and a few months later was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a "pre-leukemic" cancer. She will share her learnings as a physician for those near life's end, and then share what she has had to unlearn and re-learn as she looks toward her own death.
"There is a gap that exists -- and will always exist -- between medicine and patients facing terminal illness, and it is only by facing -- even embracing -- our own deaths will we build bridges across that gap," she has written. She will be joined in our discussion by Janet Brown and Wendy Brown, both of whom are walking this journey with her.
July 2022 - No Community Meeting. We're taking a break to enjoy our beautiful summer weather and will return on August 14th. See you soon!
August 10, 2022 - Understanding Medical Aid in Dying with Rebecca Thoman, M.D.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Ten states and the District of Columbia currently authorize medical aid in dying as an option for terminally ill adults at the end of life. Twenty more states introduced or advanced similar legislation this year, including Minnesota. This presentation provides an overview of medical aid in dying and the proposed Minnesota End-of-Life Options Act, as well as results from public opinion polls and data from Oregon and other states where the law has been in place for decades.
Speaker: Rebecca Thoman, M.D. manages the campaign to authorize aid in dying for Compassion & Choices in Minnesota. She has worked in health and public health policy for more than 20 years advocating for issues such as gun violence prevention, tobacco control and health care access. She trained in Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, is a registered lobbyist and was a candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2000.
About Compassion & Choices
Compassion & Choices is the largest and oldest national nonprofit organization committed to improving care and expanding choice at the end of life. We work to empower individuals to make end-of-life decisions that are best for them and their families and consistent with their personal values and priorities.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Ten states and the District of Columbia currently authorize medical aid in dying as an option for terminally ill adults at the end of life. Twenty more states introduced or advanced similar legislation this year, including Minnesota. This presentation provides an overview of medical aid in dying and the proposed Minnesota End-of-Life Options Act, as well as results from public opinion polls and data from Oregon and other states where the law has been in place for decades.
Speaker: Rebecca Thoman, M.D. manages the campaign to authorize aid in dying for Compassion & Choices in Minnesota. She has worked in health and public health policy for more than 20 years advocating for issues such as gun violence prevention, tobacco control and health care access. She trained in Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, is a registered lobbyist and was a candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2000.
About Compassion & Choices
Compassion & Choices is the largest and oldest national nonprofit organization committed to improving care and expanding choice at the end of life. We work to empower individuals to make end-of-life decisions that are best for them and their families and consistent with their personal values and priorities.
September 14, 2022 - Ambiguous Losses and Resiliency During Troubling Times with Ted Bowman
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Clarity, plans, and continuity are often desired and welcomed. Uncertainty about
and interruptions to anticipated future stories, on the other hand, can evoke anxiety
and incompetence. Personal losses also occur at intersections with collective
disruptions, adding to distress and greater ambiguity.
Increased comfort with ambiguity can enrich lives and care of self and
others. Resiliency promotion for troubling times will be emphasized.
Speaker: Ted Bowman is a grief educator and consultant. He specializes in change and transition. For over 40 years, he has been a frequent trainer, consultant, and speaker with many groups throughout Minnesota, the United States, and other countries. Ted was an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota (Family Education) 1981-2012; at the University of Saint Thomas (Social Work) 2006 until 2019; and 1989 to 1996 at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. His newest book, Ambiguous Parables: Poem and Prose of Loss and Renewal, was published in November 2021.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Clarity, plans, and continuity are often desired and welcomed. Uncertainty about
and interruptions to anticipated future stories, on the other hand, can evoke anxiety
and incompetence. Personal losses also occur at intersections with collective
disruptions, adding to distress and greater ambiguity.
Increased comfort with ambiguity can enrich lives and care of self and
others. Resiliency promotion for troubling times will be emphasized.
Speaker: Ted Bowman is a grief educator and consultant. He specializes in change and transition. For over 40 years, he has been a frequent trainer, consultant, and speaker with many groups throughout Minnesota, the United States, and other countries. Ted was an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota (Family Education) 1981-2012; at the University of Saint Thomas (Social Work) 2006 until 2019; and 1989 to 1996 at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. His newest book, Ambiguous Parables: Poem and Prose of Loss and Renewal, was published in November 2021.
October 12, 2022 - Brighter Days Grief Center with Carolyn Kinzel
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Carolyn’s first hospice experience with a loved one helped form the mission and vision of Brighter Days Family Grief Center. Carolyn will share this story and then provide an overview of the services of Brighter Days with special emphasis on support for individuals and families anticipating the death of a loved one. Carolyn will also share about the upcoming launch of their anticipatory grief support training program for individuals who wish to facilitate grief support groups and workshops through Brighter Days. This program is intended to bring end-of-life advocates together to provide a village of continual care and support to the families Brighter Days Family Grief Center serves.
Speaker:
Carolyn Kinzel is the Founder and President of Brighter Days Family Grief Center, a family-focused nonprofit grief center providing free services to youth, young adults, and adults grieving the death or terminal diagnosis of a loved one.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Carolyn’s first hospice experience with a loved one helped form the mission and vision of Brighter Days Family Grief Center. Carolyn will share this story and then provide an overview of the services of Brighter Days with special emphasis on support for individuals and families anticipating the death of a loved one. Carolyn will also share about the upcoming launch of their anticipatory grief support training program for individuals who wish to facilitate grief support groups and workshops through Brighter Days. This program is intended to bring end-of-life advocates together to provide a village of continual care and support to the families Brighter Days Family Grief Center serves.
Speaker:
Carolyn Kinzel is the Founder and President of Brighter Days Family Grief Center, a family-focused nonprofit grief center providing free services to youth, young adults, and adults grieving the death or terminal diagnosis of a loved one.
November 9, 2022 - Dying is Not Giving up with Kelly Grosklags, LICSW, BCD, FAAGC.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
During this time we will discuss how being present with the dying is our greatest gift. Talk about the "Good Patient Syndrome" and how this may impact care. Discussing curing versus healing and all the ways people can heal with dying.
Kelly's Bio:
For over twenty-five years, Kelly Grosklags has helped patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians understand and cope with grief, loss, and traumatic illness through her work in palliative care, hospice, emergency rooms and her private psychotherapy practice. Kelly is Board Certified in Clinical Social Work and completed a Fellowship in Grief Counseling from the American Academy of Healthcare Professionals. She is a sought-after international public speaker, author, podcast host. She is Executive Producer of “Dying Is Not Giving Up” and has won awards for this first venture into filmmaking.
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
During this time we will discuss how being present with the dying is our greatest gift. Talk about the "Good Patient Syndrome" and how this may impact care. Discussing curing versus healing and all the ways people can heal with dying.
Kelly's Bio:
For over twenty-five years, Kelly Grosklags has helped patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians understand and cope with grief, loss, and traumatic illness through her work in palliative care, hospice, emergency rooms and her private psychotherapy practice. Kelly is Board Certified in Clinical Social Work and completed a Fellowship in Grief Counseling from the American Academy of Healthcare Professionals. She is a sought-after international public speaker, author, podcast host. She is Executive Producer of “Dying Is Not Giving Up” and has won awards for this first venture into filmmaking.
December 14, 2022 - The Grief Pilgrim, Siobhan Asgharzadeh @ livingceremony@gmail.com
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Grief does not care about facts, goals, agendas, time frames. Grief does not want to hear about scientific studies regarding her or new disorders that try to fit her into a tightly manicured box. Grief is feral and messy, not tidy and efficient. There is no fixing grief, or banishing her from ones experience. She will be walking with us our whole lives, and what Grief wants is to be related to. Fed by song, by story, by dance, by the sound of a river and the feel of rain, Grief can be an ally in our becoming. Grief Pilgrim’s work is to re-imagine the majesty of Grief, to re-story how we can relate to this being that will walk with us through our lives. It is unfortunate that grieving doesn’t fit into modernity, into lives that have been constructed to stay busy, stay distracted, to be productive, to not feel because it takes too much time. We are swimming against a massive cultural current by choosing to look toward our grief, and to feel. In this talk, I will share an old myth and talk about how metaphor is a language that grief can understand.
Siobhan's Bio:
Siobhan Asgharzadeh is grief doula, certified birth and death midwife, ceremonialist, and storyteller and who lives outside of Boulder Colorado in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her work is centered around weaving soulfulness into the various passages we move through in our lives. Through story, ritual, dance, sounding practices, dreams, and wilderness soujurns, Siobhan supports people in imagining new ways of engaging with life’s many thresholds. In the last many years, Siobhan has been focused on supporting people through the initiation that presents itself when humans are confronted with loss and brought into the depths of grief. She facilitates Grief Pilgrimages and Retreats on the wild lands. You can find more information about Siobhan on her website www.griefpilgrim.com
Zoom 7:00-8:30PM CST
Grief does not care about facts, goals, agendas, time frames. Grief does not want to hear about scientific studies regarding her or new disorders that try to fit her into a tightly manicured box. Grief is feral and messy, not tidy and efficient. There is no fixing grief, or banishing her from ones experience. She will be walking with us our whole lives, and what Grief wants is to be related to. Fed by song, by story, by dance, by the sound of a river and the feel of rain, Grief can be an ally in our becoming. Grief Pilgrim’s work is to re-imagine the majesty of Grief, to re-story how we can relate to this being that will walk with us through our lives. It is unfortunate that grieving doesn’t fit into modernity, into lives that have been constructed to stay busy, stay distracted, to be productive, to not feel because it takes too much time. We are swimming against a massive cultural current by choosing to look toward our grief, and to feel. In this talk, I will share an old myth and talk about how metaphor is a language that grief can understand.
Siobhan's Bio:
Siobhan Asgharzadeh is grief doula, certified birth and death midwife, ceremonialist, and storyteller and who lives outside of Boulder Colorado in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her work is centered around weaving soulfulness into the various passages we move through in our lives. Through story, ritual, dance, sounding practices, dreams, and wilderness soujurns, Siobhan supports people in imagining new ways of engaging with life’s many thresholds. In the last many years, Siobhan has been focused on supporting people through the initiation that presents itself when humans are confronted with loss and brought into the depths of grief. She facilitates Grief Pilgrimages and Retreats on the wild lands. You can find more information about Siobhan on her website www.griefpilgrim.com
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