The course combines 15-weeks of on-line learning with an 8-day residential retreat. The structure of the program allows participants to gain a more personal understanding of end-of-life needs, and uses a variety of learning modalities, including individual, group and interactive work, as well as lectures and personal mentoring by an experienced international faculty of healthcare professionals and educators.

Contemplative care and personal transformation

• Qualities of contemplative caregiving
• Cultivating ‘presence’ through meditation
• Reflections on impermanence and death
• Self-care for caregivers: recognizing burnout, and contemplative practice for preventing burnout
• Deepening genuine compassion
• Integrating meditation with health care work and daily life
• Caregiving as spiritual practice

Training in contemplative listening

• Methods for ‘Contemplative Listening’ and its practical applications
• ‘Council’ - a model for family and bereavement support, and team meetings
• Speaking about death and supporting people in denial
• Guidelines for communicating with families

Supporting the dying and their families

• Assessing and responding to the needs of the dying
• Understanding and transforming suffering
• Family dynamics and supporting families
• Healing relationships
• Methods for resolving unfinished business
• Needs of the elderly: aging and dementia
• Trends in hospice and palliative care

Contemplative or Spiritual Care

• What spiritual care really means
• Four resources for spiritual care
• The spiritual dimension of life and death
• Recognizing and addressing spiritual pain
• Spiritual preparation for death
• Finding meaning: supporting those not affiliated with a faith tradition
• Cultural and religious aspects of caregiving

Bereavement

• The process of bereavement
• Supporting the bereaved
• The spiritual dimension of bereavement

Contemplative Practices

• The Three Goods - creating a sacred environment for life and work
• Mind, meditation and the nature of mind
• Practices for awakening and deepening compassion
  
• Christian meditation: ‘Centering Prayer’
• The Heart Practice
• Essential Phowa for healing and the moment of death
• Working with thoughts and emotions