Skills training for healthcare professionals and volunteers with Christine Longaker, Kirsten Deleo or Rosamund Oliver in the USA, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and more...

Amersfoort, Netherlands	11-13 June 2010
Berlin, Germany	18-20 June 2010
Bolder CO, USA	9-10 October 2010
Tenzin Gyatso Institute, Berne, NY, USA	15-18 October 2010
Dublin, Ireland	26-28 November 2010
Israel	8-12 February 2011
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY, USA	11-14 March 2011
Gutach-Bleibach, Germany	2-3 April 2011
Berlin, Germany	8-10 April 2011
Dzogchen Beara Retreat Centre, West Cork, Ireland	13-15 May 2011
Zurich, Switzerland	3-5 June 2011	Register now
Amsterdam, NL	25-27 June 2011
Lerab Ling, south of France organized by Buddhism and Medicine International Forum	1-3 October 2011
London, UK	20-22 October 2011
Melbourne, Australia	12-13 November 2011
Sydney, Australia	16-17 November 2011

Responding effectively to the needs of patients remains an on-going professional and deeply personal challenge. Compassion and Presence offers the opportunity to learn contemplative resources that support you in your life and work, and enhance the way you offer care - with a renewed sense of joy, confidence, and fulfillment. Drawing from meditations taught in the wisdom tradition of Tibet, this training focuses on cultivating presence and mindfulness, and deepening the capacity for compassion, so that you can remain present, spacious and loving in the face of suffering.

The training introduces insights and contemplations from Sogyal Rinpoche's groundbreaking book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and demonstrates in practical ways how to appropriately integrate these practices of meditation, contemplative listening, and compassion in any medical setting.

Compassion and Presence is for anyone who cares for others in hospice, palliative care, critical care, gerontology, oncology, general medicine, nursing, emergency medicine, pastoral care, psychology, social work, health care education, and other allied health professions. It will resonate with professionals and volunteers from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds.

The training focuses on four core competencies:

• Holding authentic presence and communication.
• Deepening one's ability to extend compassion toward oneself and others.
• Developing a personal understanding of suffering, and how to be present with suffering.
• Applying contemplative practices for self-care.

Methods of training

Lectures, discussion, writing, reflection, contemplative practice, and interactive methods for integrating learning.

Training Topics

• Spirituality and healthcare - an introduction to the spiritual care model of compassionate care
• Cultivating presence through meditation and mindfulness practice
• Methods for deepening compassion
• Responding to suffering
• Training in contemplative listening
• Creating a sacred environment
• Compassionate self-care for alleviating stress, healing burnout, and transforming challenging situations
• Caregiving as spiritual practice
• Scientific research on the benefits of training in meditation and compassion in medical care work.

Faculty

Christine Longaker, Education Director, Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program. Former director and staff trainer of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County in California, Christine has provided hospice trainings internationally since 1978. She has been instrumental in developing Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program, and serves as its International Education Director. She co-designed and serves as faculty for Naropa University's accredited training in 'Contemplative End-of-Life Care', and is author of Facing Death and Finding Hope: A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying, which is translated into nine languages.

Kirsten DeLeo, MA, International Training Manager and Senior Educator, Spiritual Care Education Program. Drawing from more than fifteen years' experience accompanying people in the last phase of life, Kirsten leads trainings for professionals and the public, and is faculty for Naropa University's 'Contemplative End of Life Care' training. She is a counselor specializing in spiritual care, and in supporting people living with illness. Kirsten completed a three-year meditation retreat under the guidance of Sogyal Rinpoche and is a Senior Meditation Instructor in Rigpa.

Rosamund Oliver, BA, Dip Psych, ECP, worked for many years as a UKCP registered psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. Her public healthcare work includes NHS psychiatry with the elderly bereaved, nurse education at St Joseph’s Hospice, London and co-creating a prison meditation project. She held a series of Buddhist psychotherapy seminars in South Africa. She is an international training manager and has regularly been invited to give professional trainings on behalf of Rigpa’s Spiritual Care Education Programme. She has been a student of Sogyal Rinpoche since 1981.