SARANA INSTITUTE IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MINDFULNESS PROJECT AT SICKKIDS HOSPITAL PRESENTS:
A DAY -LONG WORKSHOP WITH ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX
G.R.A.C.E. Training
Cultivating Compassion in the Human Encounter with Suffering
Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD, has been training healthcare professionals for over 35 years with skills to sustain themselves in the face of distress. First developed as a protocol and intervention for frontline nurses, the G.R.A.C.E. process will give participants insights in developing an “embodied compassion,” from the lens of neuroscience, social psychology, ethics, and mindfulness practice. This scientifically grounded and experiential day of training operationalizes compassion as part of our everyday experience in mediating the challenges and suffering present in caring for those ill or dying. As individuals and as healthcare and end-of-life communities, our work must include healthy strategies in sustaining our well being; Roshi Joan’s presence and wisdom supports us in resourcing resiliency where we can flourish as we offer our caring compassionately.
Date: Feb 13, 2017 Time: 9:30am-4:30pm
Location: Hollywood Theatre, SickKids Hospital, 555 University Ave, Toronto
Workshop General Fee: $160*
(Includes refreshments and light lunch)
*Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, we are able to offer the workshop at this special and reduced rate.
PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING GENEROUSLY to our SCHOLARSHIP FUND TODAY!!
REGISTER NOW
Who should participate?
Healthcare clinicians, professional caregivers, therapists, chaplains, social workers and family caregivers or anyone wishing to embed compassion in their professional or caregiving lives.
About the Speaker:
Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD, is a world-renowned speaker, teacher and humanitarian. Her presence on the world stage, both as a woman and as a Buddhist priest, expresses her commitment to social change and compassionate response to suffering through loving actions. Her annual pilgrimage to the Himalayans, where she brings medicine, doctors, and a surgical support team through a traveling Nomad’s Clinic is a clear example of engaging suffering fearlessly: Traveling Thru Kham: A Medical Mission in Tibet.
As an activist, medical anthropologist, author, caregiver, ecologist, teacher, and Zen Buddhist priest — Joan Halifax is many things to many people. Yet they all seem to agree that no matter what role she plays, Halifax is consistently courageous and compassionate. Halifax runs the Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, www.upaya.org that brings world-renowned teachers and scholars to explore the engagement of practice in the fields of meditation, caregiving, ecology and neuroscience. Her practice focuses on socially engaged Buddhism, which aims to alleviate suffering through meditation, interfaith cooperation, and social service.
As director of the Project on Being With Dying, Halifax has helped caregivers cope with death and dying for more than three decades. Her latest book, Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death, helps medical professionals, social workers, clergy and family members remove fear from the end of life. Halifax is a distinguished invited scholar of the U.S. Library of Congress and the only woman and Buddhist on the Tony Blair Foundation’s Advisory Council. Halifax is also an active contributor to the Mind and Life Institute, that was established to pursue a dialogue between his H.H. the Dalai Lama and the scientific community, mindandlife.org . In 2013, she was awarded Traveller of the Year by National Geographic Magazine, for her earlier work as a Medical Anthropologist and today for her tireless serving and teaching, including her annual pilgrimage to Nepal.
Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy

Truchas, New Mexico. Joan Halifax. jhalifax@gmail.com