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Enhancing the experience
of caregiving by teaching
mindfulness and compassion

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Caregivers

Caregivers

We train family, professional, and clinical caregivers to develop and apply mindfulness for engaged care.
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Volunteers

Volunteers

We offer an opportunity to cultivate awareness and compassion by caring for those with chronic and terminal illness.
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Partners

Partners

We pursue better caregiving through partnering with networks of inspired people and organizations.
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Our Offerings

We teach mindfulness and compassion to improve well-being and care.

Our work, drawing from over 30 years of experience in hospice and end of life care, is grounded in the expression
of the universal values of compassion and service. We teach caregivers to use mindfulness-based tools to improve
well-being, and through conversation, we inspire each other to live fully in the face of the universal experience of loss.

Mindful Caregiving Education

Our courses improve care by helping caregivers build emotional resilience and work skillfully with stress and loss.
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Volunteer Caregiving Program

We train volunteers in skills grounded in mindfulness and compassion to serve people who are chronically ill or dying.
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Exploring Loss

We create and participate in workshops, events and conferences to bring the topics of loss and death into the open.
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Memorial

Thank you, Irene

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our teacher, friend, and colleague, Irene Smith. Irene died at home on April 4th, supported by a wide network of devoted friends and volunteers. Irene participated in the first-ever Zen Hospice Project volunteer caregiver training over thirty years ago and joined us for nearly every one since. She generously shared her Touch Awareness practices with family and professional caregivers as a Guest Instructor. Irene reached a level of extraordinary renown worldwide for her work. We will dearly miss Irene’s care, brilliance, gentle gaze, and good humor. You can find out more about memorial services by visiting her Caringbridge page.
Resources

Check out our library of free, online resources

At Zen Caregiving Project we want to share our approach and teaching with as many people as possible. That’s why, over the last few years, we have been recording our live sessions and posting them on our resources page. We have videos on topics such as Self Compassion, Working with Grief, Building Resilience and Managing Difficult Emotions. You can also find blogs about our work, and lists of further resources you may find helpful.

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News from the Field

On Caregiving

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Learnings from 11 years at the bedside

John Rubin was a volunteer with Zen Caregiving Project for 11 years, serving at the bedside at Laguna Honda Hospital. Here he shares his story, and what he learned.
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training cohort

Mindful Caregiving Trainees share their top learnings

Trainees in our Train-the-trainer program share what they learned about mindfulness and family caregiving
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Translating our Mindful Caregiving Course into Spanish

How we are working with partners to translate our Mindful Family Caregiving course into Spanish, making it culturally and linguistically accessible to Latino caregivers
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caregiving study

Our Family Caregiver study has begun

Why we are doing a family caregiver study, what it involves, and what the results will tell us.
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Rite of Passage

Family Caregiving is a Rite of Passage

What unites most people who join our courses is the struggle caregiving presents in their already busy lives.
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Webinar on Self-Compassion: Addressing professional burnout

A recording of short, practical self-compassion exercises that healthcare workers can integrate into each day.
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Testimonials

What People Are Saying

We want to improve the care experience for everyone. Our greatest reward is knowing that our training improves the well being of those we serve.
I feel more connected to the person I am caring for because of this class, and I feel more connected to myself.
Course participant
Mindful Family Caregiving Course Participant (Online)
Volunteering at Zen Hospice Project has had a profound influence on my life. It brings joy to my life and I always receive much more than I give.
Laurent de Bord
Volunteer Caregiver at Laguna Honda Hospital
Your workshop was a highlight of the weekend. It felt incredibly gratifying.
Mindy Relyea
Everpresence Symposium Founder, and Director
Support Our Work
Your generosity helps us serve and support caregivers in need,
and those they care for.
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Partners

We believe that better caregiving happens through networks of
inspired people and organizations working together.

We work with a range of different partners to share our mindfulness-based approach to caregiving.
Laguna Honda Hospital logo
San Francisco In-Home Support Services logo
ZSFGH logo
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