Events and Registration

Have you endured, during the demise of a loved one, circumstances so distressing that you are determined to never experience a situation like that again? Are you worried that deaths of loved ones in the foreseeable future may play out contrary to what they, and you, prefer?

Do you wonder if what you have done, or have yet to do, regarding the end of your own life will be sufficient to increase your likelihood of dying in peace?

Are you confident that the promises you’ve heard, assumed, or made to yourself for a peaceful death will be fulfilled?

Are you certain that spiritual engagement will suffice to protect you from end-of-life outcomes you hope to avoid?

Even if your family has filled out advance directive documents and engaged in conversations about end-of-life matters, do these apprehensions persist?

If you suspect that there’s more to “modern” dying than we’ve been told, if you want to make some sense of 21st century impediments, if you discern that wishing won’t go the distance and are ready for something that will, these workshops are for you.

Prices available for singles, qualifying couples’ second person discounts, and discounts for taking both workshops. See registration options at the bottom of this page.

Our Dying Territory

An introductory dive into and solution for a previously unexamined obstacle to peaceful dying: Difficulty Distinguishing Among Dying Situations (2 hours)

$30 / $20 second person of qualifying couple / discounts for the pair of workshops

If no venue and date information appears this workshop is not currently scheduled.

This workshop goes beyond advance directives and spiritual engagement. Those necessary and useful activities will not by themselves protect against what we fear experincing—peaceless dying in peaceless situations.

Wired up in the ICU. At home with the dog. These binary end-of-life scenes are all we imagine. When we fail to identify and name dying situations that exist and which we are guaranteed to encounter, we can’t adequately (if at all) consider, plan, or sense their onset. Then we get ensnared in situations that we’ve said, or even vowed, that we want to avoid.

Our Dying Territory introduces a primary obstacle to peaceful dying, Difficulty Distinguishing Among Dying Situations, and the solution to it. In this 2-hour session you will learn about 17 distinctly different dying situations that together comprise our dying territory. We will name and define each situation, consider vignettes that exemplify each, and engage in a guided group recitation through which we will imaginatively try each situation “on for size,” gauging our visceral response to each possibility. By literally giving voice, individually and collectively, to the possibility that we might experience each dying situation, we get out of our heads and into our hearts, souls, and guts—where resolve for acting on our promises takes root.

This material is completely unique and not offered by anyone else, anywhere. Understanding it sets the stage for your deepened appreciation of the other obstacles and the need to mitigate their unwanted impacts—no matter the state of our directives, proxy assignments, and spiritual yearnings.

Our Dying Territory will be summarized—but not repeated—in the followup session, To Die in Peace: Our Rights of Passage.

To Die in Peace: Our Rights of Passage

Identify, explore, and learn how to mitigate prevalent obstacles to dying in, and at, peace. (6 hours)

$110, book included / $60 second person of qualifying couple /  discounts for the pair of workshops

If no venue and date information appears this workshop is not currently scheduled.

This workshop goes beyond advance directives and spiritual engagement. Those necessary and useful activities will not by themselves protect against what we fear experincing—peaceless dying in peaceless situations.

Our Rights of Passage offers the brave at heart a sustained look at the next six obstacles to peaceful dying that await each of us in our dying territory. These obstacles are personal, systemic, and environmental in nature and scale. Together they represent what we intend that our advance directives and spiritual engagement protect us from. These real-world obstacles are generations old and will persist into the foreseeable future. Only upon facing and understanding them can we become sensitive enough, in advance, to protect ourselves and our loved ones from their worst effects.

The obstacles are:
• Difficulty Distinguishing Among Dying Situations*
• Trouble Determining When Enough is Enough
• Over-reliance on Advance Directives
• Exposure to Medical Snafus (misadventure/error)
• Ignorance Regarding Life Support Matters including systemic overrides
• Inability to Advocate for a Loved One or Oneself*
• The Opaque Dying Marketplace

*Difficulty Distinguishing Among Dying Situations (Our Dying Territory) will be quickly summarized but is otherwise NOT detailed in this session. The 2-hour Wednesday May 2 session is devoted to thoroughly exploring it.

*Advocating in medical situations is complex; there’s much to learn. This workshop will increase your sensitivity to the existence and nature of the obstacles covered. We’ll learn how to mitigate the worst effects of most of these obstacles. Several obstacles will require additional study, and perhaps experience, on your part—in particular, cultivating the ability to advocate for a loved one or yourself. In this workshop we delve into aspects of advocating medically, and role play one example problem situation. Beyond that, I provide a list of resources (books and online) that I consider the best available for this pursuit.