Presenter Name: Frank Williams   Title: Community Educator
Organization: Casa de la Luz Hospice 

Title of Workshop: FORGIVENESS: The Passage to a Sanctuary of Wholeness 

Description of Workshop: Forgiveness confronts us, our families, our caregivers and our community. Forgiveness is one of the most difficult issues of our lives and often it becomes especially meaningful as death nears. For Dr. Ira Byock, one of the major figures in the palliative care and hospice movement, Forgiveness is one of the four things that matter most in our lives- especially as we face the end of our lives. Dealing with forgiveness issues is a significant part of "preparing for the trip" and working through the process often becomes a significant joy at the end of the journey. This workshop will be experiential (interactive) and didactic. It will especially involve participants in "telling their stories," confronting issues around forgiveness, understanding what forgiveness is and is not, and processing forgiveness. 

Presenter Name: Kiel Hogan and Trevor Anderson, Co-Founders
Organization: LivesOn 

Title of Workshop: Reliving Life’s Best Moments-How Storytelling Captures the Impact of Life.  

Description of Workshop: Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve been asked to speak with a loved one in the moments before they pass. What would you say? Can you feel the anxiety building? How can you possibly encapsulate the impact and meaning they’ve had in their career, their hobbies, acts of kindness with total strangers, or the deep devotion to their family? And what about the impact they’ve had on you personally? Let’s say you could capture that information. Don’t you owe it to your loved one to let others know of their impact? Shouldn't future generations know of the profound impression your loved one left on the community around them?  

Our goal for this workshop is to reimagine how life's fondest memories can help those facing end of life—and their families—experience joy while navigating what can be one of the most challenging moments we experience.  

Participants of our workshop will learn how to use technology to generate a repository with a life’s worth of wonderful shared experiences that can be enjoyed by those in palliative or hospice care, or the families of those that have recently passed for generations to come. This repository creates a living library of these memories that can be visited at the beginning of the end of life journey, through the mourning process, and well into the future.  

Presenter Name: Kristine Bentz   Title: Co-Owner & Spiritual Counselor
Organization: Embraced by Earth, LLC 

Title of Workshop: “Natural Burial: Preparing for a Final Embrace by Mother Earth” 

By exploring together through open inquiry, this workshop will build participants’ increased understanding of natural burial alternatives and ability to express personal wishes for final arrangements that may exist outside of contemporary norms. Participants will see, feel, smell and hear examples of natural and conservation burial locations and materials; enter small group discussions about personal fears, wishes and resources; and leave with new ideas for enacting their own wishes or supporting a loved one’s wishes related to natural burial.

Presenter Name: Dr. Rebecca Powell, MD, HMDC  and  Piper Frithsen, MAdmin, RN 
Organization: Casa De La Luz 

Title of Workshop: Novel approaches to unwanted behaviors in dementia  

Description of Workshop: As Alzheimer’s disease progresses, behavioral challenges - including agitation – can increase. Current management of these behaviors with prescription drugs do not always work and the lack of clinical studies can be frustrating. In the context of Casa de La Luz Hospice’s innovative agitation program, Dr. Powell and Piper Frithsen will share practical, non-pharmaceutical approaches to treating dementia behaviors and their underlying causes like boredom, restlessness, and sensory overload. They will also share the project’s important findings demonstrating the significance of these often overlooked tools.