About the Program

An innovative certificate program for health care professionals offered by Rigpa's Spiritual Care Education Program and Naropa School of Extended Studies.

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, and lectures and personal mentoring by an experienced international faculty of healthcare professionals and educators.

Personal Transformation and Growth

The Contemplative End-of-Life Care Program is far more than an academic training aimed at simply educating health care professionals. It encourages personal transformation and growth by offering students the unique opportunity to explore their own understanding about death, and its spiritual dimension, and how they relate to life and those they care for.

As a result, students become uniquely attuned to a deeper understanding of what it means to be present with suffering and thereby are able to respond more effectively and appropriately to the needs of patients and clients and work in a team.

As a physician who has practiced radiation oncology, this program provided me with a comprehensive framework for end-of-life care through its didactic and experiential components. Much of medicine is intellectual, but this program gave me the personal experience and the tools to meet people on their own ground, which is critical, and to continue working in a heartfelt way with patients and staff.

Carole Milligan, MD, graduate of Contemplative End-of-Life Care Program

This course of study, more than any other in my life, has shifted my deep internal understanding of what it means to be courageously and authentically present with people in crisis, whether it be in the ICU, ER, or in moments at the end of life.

Joannie Webster, MD, graduate of Contemplative End-of-Life Care Program

Instead of finding a solely academic program, I found myself fully engaged on a personal level, which opened my whole understanding of life and of death. The contemplative and compassion practices taught were the tools I was familiar with, but it was through the program, that my experiential understanding of them provided the transformation. I became more open and accessible to my clients; the barrier created by my own hope and fear around illness, death and dying was removed. Now I know the meaning of those practices and the healing opportunities they offer.

Janice Smith, psychotherapist, graduate of the Contemplative End-of-Life Care Program

An Integrated Approach for professionals from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds

The training offers an integrated approach for professionals from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Professionals are trained in compassionate care, which carries the deepest spiritual values at its heart.

Through learning how to inspire oneself with a daily meditation practice, a sense of confidence and deep love naturally grows. Then, by integrating meditation practice with caregiving work, we can create an environment in which our patients can die in a state of peace and even inspiration. It is the compassionate, clear, inspired presence we bring to the ill or dying that brings hope in the face of suffering and death.

I also really appreciated the respect there was for traditions other than Buddhism and heard the invitation to examine the riches of the Christian tradition. I feel very comfortable with integrating some of the treasures that Buddhism has to offer for the compassionate care of the dying and bereaved.

Sister Brigid Murphy, Hospice Chaplain, Hospice of Leeds, England

Methodologies

The course uses contemplative practices, personal reflection, group exercises, independent study, writing, discussion, lecture and personal mentoring to move from caring for oneself to caring for others. Students receive support from the community of like-minded peers, and are mentored one on one by faculty.

The varied elements of the course grow out of the best knowledge of both the modern hospice and the ancient wisdom traditions and are carefully designed to weave the practices of meditation and compassion into the fabric of our everyday work and life.

Professionals from differing spiritual traditions working in the fields of medicine, human and social services, and students and trained volunteers who are currently engaged in a clinical setting are encouraged to apply.

Program Structure >