Healing Arts Program Announces New Dates for “Healing Loss”
Whether personally or professionally, we all experience loss of some kind at one time or another. Grief and loss can arise from a difficult break up or divorce, losing one’s abilities to an accident or aging, or mourning the death of a loved one.
The Healing Loss workshop is conducted in a safe, supportive, and confidential setting, and aims to help participants to develop tools they can use to heal (photo courtesy of Stony Point Center).
“Learning how to deal with loss and being able to grieve is important, yet as a society, we don’t tend to have good examples for grieving loss effectively and working through the loss,” said Dr. Peter Selwyn, professor and chair of family and social medicine at Einstein and Montefiore.
An Opportunity to Learn, Grow, and Heal
Since 2013, Montefiore’s Healing Arts Program has teamed with human resources to offer a special three-day workshop for all associates, called Healing Loss. The workshop, which is open to caregivers and other staff members at Einstein and Montefiore, aims to help participants process the losses they’ve experienced and develop tools for ongoing healing and self-care.
“The idea is that we need to take care of our caregivers, whether they are healthcare professionals at our hospitals, students learning their professional craft, or individuals working at Montefiore or Einstein who may be involved in the care of a loved one,” said Dr. Selwyn. “We’re happy to be able to offer these free, residential workshops to faculty, staff, and students at Einstein.”
The Healing Loss workshop is conducted in a safe, supportive, and confidential setting. Participants enjoy the comforts of a peaceful, private retreat center located in Stony Point, NY, surrounded by the beauty of nature. All meals and overnight accommodations are provided. The workshop schedule includes educational sessions, experiential activities featuring music and movement, and opportunities to share personal experiences of loss while gaining insight from the experiences of others.
Each workshop accommodates up to 20 participants and professional caregivers who take part may earn continuing education credits. The next workshop will take place from Wednesday, March 8 to Friday, March 10, 2023, with subsequent offerings planned for June 7 to 9 and October 11 to 13 of this year.
Dr. Selwyn noted, “We’re hoping more members of the Einstein community will take advantage of this opportunity.” A few spaces are still available for March, with registration now also open for June. Those wishing to register will be contacted with more information after submitting an application form. (Simply click on the “Download Application” button.)
A member of the Einstein community who has participated shared, “It was an amazing healing experience, and everyone was very welcoming. The setting itself encourages relaxation and the exercises are done with a thorough respect for each individual and the loss they are addressing, led by skillful and caring facilitators. I was so glad I decided to take part.”
A Powerful, Restorative Experience
The program’s success led Dr. Selwyn and colleagues to write a paper, published in July 2019 in the American Journal of Nursing, titled “Helping Health Care Providers and Staff Process Grief Through a Hospital-Based Program.” The paper described the workshop and findings from participant feedback, which support providing such a workshop initiative as both feasible and transformative.
The authors noted, “As the workshop proceeded, participants reported discovering that it was a ‘safe haven,’ which one person described as a ‘nonjudgmental space, where everyone was allowed to share as much or as little [as desired], at [one’s] own pace.’” Another participant shared, “To experience a sudden loss and you are hurting, but the rest of the world just marches on like nothing happened, you feel alone. This workshop showed that so many people are hurting and feeling similar.”
“Our experienced facilitators offer ways for participants to release some of the emotional ‘baggage’ and ‘unfinished business’ that can get in the way of our being truly present for ourselves and others,” said Dr. Selwyn. “And we find that participants leave the workshop equipped with new tools for self-care and healing, which help build resilience for when they face stress in the future.”
For additional information, email Tami Rivera at tariver@montefiore.org or contact Dr. Selwyn at 718.920.8434 or pselwyn@montefiore.org.
Those wishing to a take part in either of the upcoming workshops can complete an application form, which can be downloaded from the Healing Arts website.
Posted on: Monday, January 23, 2023