Compassionate, empathic people often feel called to a role that involves caring for others - such as caregivers, health professionals, or first responders. Such individuals, beyond their empathic nature, usually have personal histories that include suffering, trauma, and hardship. Caregivers' painful experiences give them even deeper sensitivities to the needs [...]
Special guest Teresa Lyons, a registered nurse with Hospice of Petaluma, shares from her life and thirty years of experience caring for dying adults and children. We are a "death-denying culture", Teresa maintains, to our great loss. Facing our mortality, not running from end-of-life involvement with those we love, can [...]
Facing adversity - even for highly successful and accomplished caregivers and others - ultimately means having to face our limitations. Adversity, such as caring for a loved one, places caregivers in a situation where they do not have control and will reach the end of their abilities. To develop resilience, [...]
The day-by-day world of caregiving is difficult, stressful, exhausting, depleting - and at the same time one of the greatest opportunities for a meaningful, fulfilling life of compassionate giving. How can empathic and sensitive caregivers prevent compassion fatigue and burnout? Effective self-care must include a deeper understanding of appropriate boundaries [...]
Effective, resilient caregivers don't run away from the hard parts of life. Embracing adversity can shape us into the people we were meant to be. Painful experiences leave us with emotional burdens which must be felt, decompressed and resolved. Denying our hard times, or splitting off and disconnecting from them, [...]
Stress, painful experiences, and the burdens of caregiving can result in taking on negative energy and emotions that find a place in both the mind and the body. The hardships of life can seem unfair but they happen to us all. It is possible to release the negative emotions and [...]
Following a visit to a local Fijian caregivers group, Bernstein Institute staff member and caregiver Hilloah Levy joins our discussion of the stresses and potential rewards of caregiving. How can caregivers continue to sustain a nurturing relationship with their care recipients while taking sufficient care of themselves to prevent fatigue [...]
Internationally-recognized singer and songwriter Randy Mayfield joins us to share his experiences bringing aid to victims of ISIS terrorism on the border between Syria and Iraq. Randy participates in small teams, which include local workers, to bring supplies, support, music and hope to traumatized refugees, primarily Yazidis, living in extreme [...]
With special guest Mimi Amaral, we explore what it means to respond to the hardships that can come into our lives - to "face it, feel it, change it". Reacting to adversity by running away often leads to painful losses and regrets. Facing challenges can expose the parts of ourselves [...]
Peter M. Bernstein, PhD is a coach, mentor, educator and trainer with over 47 years of experience providing strategies for enhanced performance and relief from trauma. An Army infantry veteran who served stateside during the Vietnam War era, he feels a deep commitment to meeting the needs of veterans and their loved ones and caregivers. Peter’s approach utilizes a combination of coaching, mentoring and bodywork to offer hope and healing through transformative resilience.