Thursday 14 February 2013

Courtenay’s first Death Café with Dale Presly



You Are Invited to Courtenay’s first Death Café!
 
What: Shared experience and discussion about death in an informal atmosphere is what Death Café is all about.
 
Where: Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, Courtenay, BC
 
When: Friday, March 8th, 7 – 9 pm in the Evergreen Lounge

Who: Open to all mortals.

Admission: By donation or a tasty desert/savory snack. Coffee and tea provided.


The objective of Death Café is to ‘increase awareness of death
with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.
  
Visit www.iamwell.ca or www.deathcafe.com for more information.



Dale Presly says:

When I came to Hospice I was working as a Reconnective Healing Practitioner. This is a form of ‘energy work’. We offer this, along with Healing Touch and Reiki at the
Comox Valley Hospice Self-care clinic once a week. I noticed that this energy work helped clients relax and quiet the mental noise. I have since added Hypnotherapy to my skill set and become very interested in exploring altered states of consciousness as they appear at the end of life. I love the quote by Krishnamurti: You are frightened of death because you have postponed it.
My interest lies in exploring altered states, using hypnosis methods, as a way to practice the death experience and as a way to deepen the understanding of our own inner/imagination processes – which always emerge at the end-0f-life.

As a Hospice volunteer I have participated in many end-of-life scenarios and learned something new in each one. Last year my ex-wife died at a 58 and I was able to companion her final journey. From that experience I developed a course that I call ‘Companioning Altered States of Consciousness’. Altered states show up at various times at the end-of-life, often scaring care givers and the person experiencing them. Fear makes the dying process difficult on everyone. The course is designed to explore our own altered states, through deep relaxation and guided imagination and look for features common to altered states. Fear is allayed and the need for medication is greatly reduced.
The Death Café is part of the Living With Dying Series –  explorations at the end-of-life.  The Saturday morning workshop, also at the Filberg Centre, is called ‘Companioning Altered States’ and will look at navigating altered states of conscious as they appear at the end of life.

Altered states of consciousness occur at the end-of-life at various times, durations and intensities. A lack of personal experience with altered states generates fear in both care givers and dying persons. Two questions arise. Can we gain a deeper understanding of these meaningful inner experiences and, how can we communicate with persons in an altered state?  Participants will experience an altered state through deep relaxation and guided imagery. Features common to altered states of consciousness will be examined.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck Dale and have fun at your first cafe'.
    Looking forward to reading your blog post about the event.
    Best,
    Audrey Pellicano

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dale - I missed your first cafe but I'm hoping it's not going to be your last one - how will I find out when and where your next one will be???
    thanks, Marnie
    mefiddis@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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