“My healing started the moment I began the course.”

“I’m from San Francisco, am the elder of two daughters and have been blessed to be happily married for over thirty years. Two and a half years ago, my father suffered a massive stroke, and I was thrown into the ‘world’ of family caregiving. Last year I learned about the Mindful Caregiving Education program. Until then, I hadn’t even identified myself as a family caregiver!

My healing started the moment I began the course. Once the session commenced, it was clear that in addition to being wise and highly skilled, the facilitators’ personal family caregiving experiences informed their approach to their teaching. Their ability to be fully present with each participant was both powerful and rejuvenating. One day after the course, I was driving my father to an appointment, and he was talking about a sad time in his life. I became aware of my urge to “help him” remember happier times. I realized that I was trying to avoid feeling pain. However, in doing so, I would have inadvertently shut him down, thereby not provide him the opportunity to grieve and perhaps come to a place of acceptance and reconciliation with his past experiences. I believe that MCE has helped increase my self-awareness and supported an immediate shift in my behavior. For me, this was a profound moment. I hope that my father was able to feel both valued and validated.”