Description: This keynote offers a moving, often funny, and deeply honest look at what it means to care for an aging parent or partner. Drawing on personal stories and clinical insight, it explores caregiver exhaustion, guilt, sibling conflict, end-of-life decisions, and the emotional whiplash of loving someone who is fading. Participants hear practical ways to set boundaries, honor complex feelings, locate moments of grace, and repair unfinished business so that caregiving becomes not just a burden but a meaningful act of connection and dignity.
Syllabus Description: Fifty million Americans currently care for an aging partner or parent. Using poignant movie clips, Janis will address the joy and imposition of caregiving in families and in couples. She’ll also offer universal lessons on how partners can help each other grow old gracefully and survive this ordinary, extraordinary journey.
Educational Objectives:
*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*
Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D., ABPP, is a board certified clinical psychologist and nationally acclaimed expert on issues of trust, intimacy, and forgiveness. Her first book, After the Affair: Healing the Pain and Rebuilding Trust When a Partner Has Been Unfaithful, has sold more than a half million copies and was a Books for a Better Life Award finalist in the categories of Best First Book and Best Relationship Book. The completely updated second edition (2012) includes a new chapter on affairs in cyberspace. How Can I Forgive You? The Courage to Forgive, the Freedom Not To, was a Books for a Better Life Award finalist in the category of Best Psychology Book. Life with Pop: Lessons on Caring for an Aging Parent, a Living Well Award Silver Medalist, captures the extraordinary, ordinary personal challenges and moments of grace that come with caregiving and growing old.