Issues of Life and Death: Life Affirming Death Awareness

For Professionals
Human beings are unique in the awareness of their own mortality. This seminar explores how this awareness of death affects people’s lives, and explains how individuals defend against death anxiety. The seminar also presents ways of living with an awareness of death that can enhance our relationships and life experience. Unique video documentaries show examples of ways in which individuals can talk together and face the issues of life and death, and demonstrate how such open communication about death and dying allows people to share their feelings and develop strength and a sense of kinship with others.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Identify ways in which individuals develop defenses against death anxiety,

• Explore the impact of psychological defenses against death anxiety; and

• Develop strategies for helping clients understand their own death anxiety and translate their knowledge into more fulfilling relationships and life experiences.

For the General Public

Living Fully in Fearful Times
Each day we are bombarded with images of death in the media. The war in Iraq; school violence; prime-time crime dramas – and certainly the evening news all make us acutely aware of our own mortality. In this constant state of sensory overload, it is easy to become desensitized. The reaction of many people is to become numb, depressed, apathetic and isolated, but this is a self-destructive response that causes us to disconnect from the basic aspects of our own humanity.

This seminar offers the opportunity to explore common defenses against death anxiety, identify their root causes, and suggests ways to live a full and compassionate life despite our awareness of the reality of death.