ContemplAgeing

What does it mean to be free—especially in light of the ebbing of physicality, social connection, and self-respect?

1. What illusions does aging dispel?
2. Which illusions are the most difficult to let go?
3. Is there a positive purpose to keeping some of our illusions?  If so, which ones?
4. Why have we allowed certain events, things, and people to have power over us?
5. What still keeps you at the mercy of particular events, things, and people?

How and why is waking up and breaking denial a pre-requisite for spiritual growth?

1. Why do we want to stay asleep?
2. What wakes you up?
3. Has there been one particular experience that has finally awakened you?
4. What do you think God wants to awaken you to?
5. Is there a constructive role for regret, shame, and guilt?

Just back from the Fifth International Conference on Positive Aging entitled “Innovation in Positive Aging.” It was hosted by Fielding Graduate University and held in Los Angeles, California at The Center for Healthy Communities of The California Endowment.

My colleague, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. and I, Bob Weber, Ph.D., convened a series of five presentations on the topic “Developing Resilience through Spiritual Exercise in the Second Half of Life.”

Each presentation focused on a different question about developing spiritual resilience.  This blog posting will sketch the first question and invite you to consider your own answers to the question.  Four succeeding posts will frame the other questions and invite your consideration of them as well.

Carol Orsborn is the author of many books including The Art of Resilience: 100 Paths to Wisdom and Strength in an Uncertain World.  Currently, Carol is Senior Vice President with www.CoroHealth.com which provides audio-based spiritual content for the long-term care community; Senior Strategist with www.VibrantNation.com; and CEO of www.BoomerInfluence.com.

As a clinical psychologist in private practice (Cambridge, MA); a supervisor, teacher and consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA); and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, my focus at this time is the integration of aging, spirituality and mental health. One fruit of my interest is www.ContemplAgeing.com.

The presentation at this conference arose from our mutual interest in these three elements, their interrelationship, and their integration.

For your reflection and consideration, here is the first overarching question and its five sub-questions:

What is mature spirituality?  And what is the relationship between mature spirituality and resilience?

1. What is a psychologically and spiritually healthy vision of aging that neither reviles, marginalizes, nor romanticizes?
2. How has your spirituality changed/deepened over time?
3. What notions of God have you outgrown?
4. What is the relationship between spirituality and religion?
5. How can you assess your progress towards a more mature spirituality?

AGING
Treatment Perspectives and Challenges
November 4–5, 2011 • Friday–Saturday
Radisson Hotel, Boston, MA
Earn up to 14 continuing education credits/units
(16.8 for nurses)

An overview of cutting edge issues in the treatment of the aging population. Speakers include world renown physician Sherwin Nuland on the art of aging; Mark Moss on the neurobiology of the older patient; Lisa Krinsky on LGBT issues; Robert Stickgold on sleep; Hilary Jacobs on addiction; Angela Botts on ethical challenges; Thomas Perls on living to 100; Artemis March on the end-of-life journey, and other topics pertinent to this age group.

This course is intended for health and mental health clinicians, geriatricians, researchers, educators, and others interested in the aged, and the aging process.

www.cme.hms.harvard.edu/courses/aging

On Saturday, November 5th, I will present “The Role of Spirituality in the Lives and Treatment of Older Adults.”

Tonight, I am offering a seminar for the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in Boston, MA as part of a course entitled, “Spiritually-Oriented Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice.” The course is coordinated by John McDargh, PhD., an Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA.

Psychology’s interest in spirituality has increased markedly in recent years.  As the field has begun to expand its originally narrow boundaries to capture the complexity of human experience across populations and world views, psychologists are increasingly called to consider and appreciate the complex roles that religion and spirituality play in their clients’ lives. 

Despite the increased attention given by the field of psychology to spiritual and religious issues, training in this area continues to be scarce and inadequate.  It is doubtful whether psychologists currently address the spiritual and religious needs of their clients adequately.

The purpose of this seminar is to enhance the competence of clinicians to address their clients’ religious and spiritual issues by developing greater awareness, knowledge, and skills.

On Thursday, October 6, 2011, from 11 am to 12 pm, I will give an invited presentation, “Spiritual Opportunities in the Second Half of Life,” at the Haber Room of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston.

Following is a description of the program.

The possibilities for spiritual growth abound if you have the eyes to see them.  In the second half of life new opportunities for coming alive spiritually, opportunities that were not available at earlier stages of development, present themselves in abundance.

This presentation will invite you to explore the unique circumstances of the second half of your own life in a reflective, meditative, and contemplative way to seek, to discover, to unearth, and to realize these possibilities. 

In doing so you will experience an enhancement and deepening of your spirituality and so continue to live your life to the full.

By further developing and deepening a contemplative spirit you will begin to realize that your spiritual life grows not in spite of the unique challenges that you face in the second half of life, but because of those challenges.

Sponsoring the presentation is MGH Senior HealthWISE.  MGH Senior HealthWISE is a program of the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI) and the MGH Geriatric Medicine Unit.

The program’s mission is to enhance the health and well-being of older adults in the neighborhoods that surround MGH.  This is achieved through education, support and community programming.

The Spiritual Journey of the Second Half of Life

Date: Saturday, October 1, 2011

Campion Jesuit Renewal Center

319 Concord Road

Weston, MA 02493-1398

(781) 419-1337

Time: 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Cost: $35.00 Deposit: $10.00
Director: Robert L. Weber, Ph.D.

The possibilities for spiritual growth abound if you have the eyes to see them. In the second half of life new opportunities for coming alive spiritually, possibilities that were not available at earlier stages of development, present themselves in abundance. This day of prayer and reflection will invite you to enter the “sacred space” of the unique circumstances of the second half of your own life in a contemplative way to seek, to discover, and to realize these possibilities in order to enhance and deepen your spirituality so that you may live “life to the full.” By further developing and deepening a contemplative spirit you will begin to realize that your spiritual life grows not in spite of the unique challenges that you face in the second half of life, but because of those challenges.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER

www.campioncenter.org/programs/daysprayerreflection.htm

GLASTONBURY ABBEY

HINGHAM, MA 

New Program Offering

Spring 2011 

WHAT 

A Day of Prayer, Reflection and Recollection

Aging as a Natural Monastery:

A Time for Contemplative Aging 

WHERE 

Glastonbury Abbey

Abbey Center

16 Hull Road

Hingham, MA 

WHEN 

Saturday, April 16, 2011

9:00 AM to 3:45 PM

Registration is 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM 

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 

• This day of recollection, reflection, and prayer will introduce you to the discipline and practice of ContemplAgeing
• ContemplAgeing indicates an ongoing exploration of the unique challenges and spiritual opportunities we encounter as we grow in age, maturity, and wisdom 
• Through the structured spiritual exercises of the day you will be assisted and encouraged to explore and discover the spiritual opportunities in your own lives
• You will be encouraged to make time for ContemplAgeing in your own lives and in the lives of those for whom you care 

LED BY 

Robert L. Weber, Ph.D.

Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology

Harvard Medical School 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND 

Attend if you are:

• A “baby boomer”
• An explorer and seeker of life’s spiritual opportunities
• Hoping to grow in age, maturity, and wisdom
• Caring for an aging parent, relative, or friend 

 COST 

$75 for the day

Includes Lunch

To Register On Line and Pay by Credit Card

Click Button Below or Above

QUESTIONS 

If you have any questions contact Dr. Weber

by phone or email: 

(617) 492-7264 Ext. 3

robert_weber@hms.harvard.edu 

The Faith & Life Forum

Ageing as a Natural Monastery: A Time for Contemplative Ageing

Sunday, March 13, 2011

9:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Our Speaker: Dr. Robert Weber

Dr. Weber has a long-standing interest in and recent focus on the integration of psychology, spirituality and aging.  This integrative effort is born of his profession as a clinical psychologist and his lifelong commitment to personal spiritual development as both a lay Catholic and former Jesuit .

His Master’s thesis (1979) was entitled, “Value Changes and Adjustment in the Elderly.”  However, his interest in this integration is more than academic.  As a first year “baby boomer” himself, he has become increasingly aware of aging, both personally and professionally.

 Dr. Weber is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  He teaches, supervises and consults at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Group Therapy.  His private practice is located in Cambridge.

 As part of the Advisory Board of the Center for Psychotherapy and Spirituality at Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, Dr. Weber is collaborating to develop a curriculum and programs designed to introduce students and other mental health professionals to psycho-spiritual issues that emerge in psychological treatment.  In addition, in 2010, he initiated an MSPP Annual Conference on Spirituality, Aging and Mental Health.  This year’s conference, “Hope and Healing: Clinical and Spiritual Encounters with Older Adults,” will be held May 14th.

 The Faith & Life Forum gathers upstairs in The Memorial Church in the Pusey Room for tea and coffee and a light continental breakfast from 9 to 9:30 AM, at which time our speaker begins our morning program.  All are warmly invited to attend the Forum.  The program draws to a close around 10:30 in time to attend the Service of Worship at 11:00.

Annual Conference on Mental Health and Aging
Co-Sponsored by the
Center for Mental Health and Aging, the Institute for Clinical Health Psychology and the
Center for Psychotherapy and Spirituality at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology;
Boston University School of Social Work;
Smith College School for Social Work; Wheelock College;
Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the Lifespan Initiative on Health Aging (LIHA), Brandeis University

Hope and Healing:
Clinical and Spiritual Encounters with Older Adults

Saturday, May 14, 2011 | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm at MSPP

Guy Maytal, MD, Erlene Rosowsky, PsyD, Susan Shulman, PhD,
Jane Marie Thibault, PhD, Robert J. Waldinger, MD and
Robert L. Weber, PhD, presenters

This full-day conference will bring together experts in the fields of spirituality, mental health and gerontology. We will focus on the therapeutic impact of one’s spiritual life when integrated with clinical work as this relates to the aging process and mental health and illness.

Overarching questions to be addressed include:

• How might the experience of the frequent and expectable challenges in later life be shaped by one’s spirituality or religious practice?
• How might this inform the existential issue of facing life’s end, whether through a known life threatening illness or the experience of having reached advanced old age?
• How might the individual’s unique spiritual history guide mental health clinicians in their work with older adults?
• When is spirituality an ally? When is it a core conflict?

In the morning this conference will elucidate an integration of clinical and spiritual perspectives on treatment through the following: a keynote presentation; a case presentation and discussion from clinical and spiritual perspectives; and a multi-disciplinary panel discussion. The afternoon workshop will address competence training to work with older adults and psycho-spiritual issues. Attendees will be encouraged to actively participate in this conference. There will be ample opportunity for creative interaction and group discussion.

A697 | 6 CE Credits | $130 includes lunch

Go to www.mspp.edu/ce for online registration