Integrating Mindfulness, Meditation and Compassion in Care With Kirsten DeLeo, MA and Ann Allegre, MD 

Open to Healthcare Professionals and Volunteers

In the practice of healing, a kind heart is as valuable as medical training, because it is the source of happiness for both oneself and others. People respond to kindness even when medicine is ineffective, and in turn cultivating a kind heart is a cause of our own good health.
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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. The training demonstrates practical ways to appropriately integrate the practices of mindfulness, meditation, contemplative listening and compassion in any setting.

Drawn from the Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition and Sogyal Rinpoche’s groundbreaking book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, these methods can be practiced by anyone at all, regardless of cultural or spiritual 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.

Kirsten DeLeo, MA, Drawing from more than sixteen 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.

Dr Ann Allegre, MD, FACP, Director of medical programs, Kansas City Hospice, medical director of palliative care, Providence Health, professor of medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine. She was awarded the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine “Project on Death in America Community Leadership in Palliative Care Award” in 2007 and named as Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2008. She was honored with the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon 2011 Award in the senior palliative care physician category. Ann is an educator with the Spiritual Care Program and faculty of Spiritual Care's "Contemplative End-of-Life Care Certificate Program" at Naropa University.

Daily schedule

Onsite registration opens Thursday, March 1st at 3 PM. Dinner at 6PM followed by the first session. Retreat closes following lunch on Sunday, March 4th.

For more information on the training and CE’s please visit Rigpa’s Spiritual Care Education Program’s website at www.spcare.org, email: usa@spcare.org or call 1-866-511-2273.

Registration for this event is a two-step process.

Registration Step 1:
Please visit the page Rigpa’s Spiritual Care Education Program website to pay the program fee.

Registration Step 2:
To complete your registration, select Register Now on this page or click here to book your room and board with the Garrison Institute.