Everyday Compassion Retreat
June 3-4, 2011
at Monte Alverno Retreat Center, 1000 N. Ballard Rd., Appleton
Saturday, June 4, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. - $75
OPTIONAL: Friday, June 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. (includes overnight stay and Saturday retreat) - $135
To care about and help another person - to be compassionate - is at the heart of what it is to be a parent, a spouse, a leader, a volunteer, a caregiver, and so much of what we value about being human. The choice to be compassionate is a choice we can make as part of almost every worthwhile activity.
But often we get distracted by other things - our work, our duties, the things we feel we have to do. We feel we can't afford the time or attention to care for others. Or we may have been hurt and lost faith, and not want someone to take advantage of us again. Perhaps we judge others, and deem them unworthy of our help. Or we've become burned out by the burden of caring and just can't help anymore.
Compassion is about being willing to care and help others - and it's also about learning to deal with what stands in the way of being compassionate. It's about the positive relationships and connections with others that come when you stop living in anger and fear, judgment and condemnation. It's about learning to see and listen to each other - and to yourself - in a deep and caring way. And it's about creating happiness in your own life, as well as in the lives of others.
LifePath's Everyday Compassion Retreat will help you make the experience of compassion part of your daily life. Taking place at the beautiful Monte Alverno Retreat Center along the Fox River in Appleton, the one-day retreat will be lead by psychologist Dr. Albert Bellg. It will focus on developing a practice for seeing and listening to each other, "simple centering" of attention, accepting and respecting ourselves and others, and cultivating a discerning wisdom to guide our helping actions. Our goal is to help you build familiarity and comfort with making compassion a part of your ongoing response to the world. The retreat will include group sharing and discussion, meditation with live music from guitarist Tom Duesterhoeft, periods of silence, and time for journaling and individual reflection. Whether the practice of compassion is deeply familiar or new to you, you will have an opportunity to peacefully extend your experience of compassion to yourself, others, and the world.
The formal retreat begins on Saturday, June 4, at 9:00 a.m. However, if you would like to deepen your retreat experience, you have the option to start on Friday evening and spend the night in a comfortable private room at Monte Alverno retreat center. There will be an informal welcome and program starting at 7:30 p.m. for those attending Friday.
Please call or email LifePath and register as soon as you can for this wonderful event. The number of participants will be limited, and we have already had a very good response. The price of the Saturday retreat will be $75, which includes lunch and snacks during the day. If you'd like to start the retreat by joining us for the Friday evening program and spending the night, the price (which includes the Saturday retreat) will be $135 and will provide breakfast as well.
We also encourage you to visit and support the Appleton Compassion Project. Over 10,000 Appleton area school children learned about compassion and created their own artistic statement related to it, and their work is on display at the Trout Museum in Appleton. You can find out more about the Appleton Compassion Project at appletoncompassion.org
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Individual counseling and healing sessions can help you identify what's most important in your life and take the next step to make it a reality. If inner barriers are holding you back, we can work in a deep way to help you move forward. In doing so, we'll help you find a way to live a life more closely aligned with who you really are. You'll find that you can change patterns of negative thinking and feeling, improve relationships, make your work more meaningful, and create greater happiness for yourself and the people around you.
In my career as a psychologist, I've learned a wide variety of effective therapeutic techniques and strategies that are much more than "just talking about it," and we will tailor the approach to your specific situation and needs. In addition to being a transformational and healing experience on their own, individual sessions can also be a wonderful way to supplement your Everyday Compassion retreat and Deepest Truth workshop experience.
Individual sessions are one hour, and the cost is $125 per session. Payment is made at the time of the session. You may schedule individual sessions at any time by calling 920-996-0887.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To be able to care about and help another person - to be compassionate - is at the heart of why many of us choose to work with medical patients.
But we can easily get distracted and pressured by other things - the record-keeping, meetings, patient phone calls, and other tasks we have to do. We begin to feel we can't afford the time or attention that patients need from us. Or perhaps we've have been hurt by a patient or a colleague, and not want someone to take advantage of us again. Perhaps we judge some of the people we work with, and deem them unworthy of our help. Or we've become burned out, or are suffering compassion fatigue from the constant burden of caring.
Having a successful career devoted to caring for and helping others means learning how to be compassionate in ways that we can sustain for the long term. It's about learning to see and listen to each other - and to ourselves and what we need - in a humane and caring way that does not burden our lives, but makes them richer and more meaningful.
LifePath's Everyday Compassion Retreat for Medical Caregivers will help you reinvigorate the experience of compassion in your work and daily life. Taking place at the beautiful Monte Alverno Retreat Center along the Fox River in Appleton, the weekend retreat will be lead by health psychologist Dr. Albert Bellg. It will focus on developing a practice for compassionate seeing and listening, "simple centering" of attention, accepting and respecting ourselves and others, and cultivating a discerning wisdom to guide our helping actions. Our goal is to help you build familiarity and comfort with making compassion a part of your ongoing response in your work with medical patients.
The retreat will include group sharing and discussion, guided meditation with live music, periods of silence, and time for journaling and individual reflection. Whether the practice of compassion in your medical work is deeply familiar or new to you, you will have an opportunity to peacefully extend your experience of compassion to yourself and others.
The retreat begins on Friday at 6:30 p.m., and ends Sunday at about 2:00 p.m. The price of $385 per person (or $350 per person in a group of two or more) includes two nights in a comfortable private room at Monte Alverno retreat center, meals and snacks during the day.
The total number of participants will be limited to 18, so please register as soon as you can for this event. You can register by emailing me at albert.bellg@att.net with your name, address and phone number, or by calling 920-996-0887.
Democracy's Habits of the Heart
How we live together in our democracy is a question that's closely related to both the deepest truth we know (following the "better angels of our nature," as Lincoln put it) and our compassionate response to others. How do we build on our strengths and what we do well as individuals and as a nation - yet have the courage and wisdom to address the suffering that is sometimes caused by them? At a time in our history when we have, in many ways, lost the thread of how to communicate with each other and take effective action as a nation, we are exploring ideas and tools to help us to engage with each other more insightfully, compassionately and courageously in our ongoing conversation about our life together.
about me
My own life path has taken me many places. For most of the last 16 years, however, I've been a clinical health psychologist working primarily with heart patients and people with other serious medical and emotional problems.
After helping people deal with the often profound changes that occurred in their lives as a result of medical illness, I began to see that in addition to traditional psychotherapy, I had something else to offer people looking to find greater clarity in their lives and a less conflicted, more compassionate way of relating to others and the world. So in April, 2010, I moved out of cardiology and opened LifePath LLC to explore new ways of serving others.
In the last two years, I've offered workshops and retreats on the process of becoming aware of our inner wisdom and what I call living the deepest truth you know. Building on the energy and activity around the Appleton Compasssion Project in the spring of 2011, we had a wonderful retreat at Monte Alverno retreat center in Appleton called Everyday Compassion. In September of 2012, I facilitated Mindful Care, a retreat for medical professionals, and we'll do this retreat again in March, 2013. Our work has now evolved into a more insight-focused and person-centered way of doing psychotherapy, individual Clarity Sessions, and retreats, workshops and classes. We have also co-sponsored showings of The Happy Movie in the Appleton area, and I recently completed writing a book about the experience of living the deepest truth we know.
If you're curious about professional credentials and experience, my doctoral degree is from the University of Rochester in New York, and I participated in advanced training fellowships at the University of Rochester and at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. I did clinical work and NIH-funded research as the Director of Cardiac Psychology at the Rush Heart Institute in Chicago for six years, and then continued my work with cardiac patients at the Appleton Heart Institute in Appleton, Wisconsin. In addition to medical patients, I have worked with a wide range of clients with depression, anxiety, PTSD, abuse, and other psychological problems. I am currently on the board of the Wisconsin Psychological Association.
As LifePath has evolved and grown, I am grateful to my wife, Laurin Bellg, MD, for her encouragement, support, and insightful ideas; to my friend and associate, Janet Stratton, for her creativity and organizational skills (and fabulous baked goods); to my friend, Tom Duesterhoeft, for his musical inspiration; to Parker J. Palmer, for his wisdom and insight in his books and retreats; to the many advisors and supporters who've helped along the way; and to our workshop participants who have brought forth remarkable wisdom that has helped us learn and do better. Thank you, all!
June 3-4, 2011
at Monte Alverno Retreat Center, 1000 N. Ballard Rd., Appleton
Saturday, June 4, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. - $75
OPTIONAL: Friday, June 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. (includes overnight stay and Saturday retreat) - $135
To care about and help another person - to be compassionate - is at the heart of what it is to be a parent, a spouse, a leader, a volunteer, a caregiver, and so much of what we value about being human. The choice to be compassionate is a choice we can make as part of almost every worthwhile activity.
But often we get distracted by other things - our work, our duties, the things we feel we have to do. We feel we can't afford the time or attention to care for others. Or we may have been hurt and lost faith, and not want someone to take advantage of us again. Perhaps we judge others, and deem them unworthy of our help. Or we've become burned out by the burden of caring and just can't help anymore.
Compassion is about being willing to care and help others - and it's also about learning to deal with what stands in the way of being compassionate. It's about the positive relationships and connections with others that come when you stop living in anger and fear, judgment and condemnation. It's about learning to see and listen to each other - and to yourself - in a deep and caring way. And it's about creating happiness in your own life, as well as in the lives of others.
LifePath's Everyday Compassion Retreat will help you make the experience of compassion part of your daily life. Taking place at the beautiful Monte Alverno Retreat Center along the Fox River in Appleton, the one-day retreat will be lead by psychologist Dr. Albert Bellg. It will focus on developing a practice for seeing and listening to each other, "simple centering" of attention, accepting and respecting ourselves and others, and cultivating a discerning wisdom to guide our helping actions. Our goal is to help you build familiarity and comfort with making compassion a part of your ongoing response to the world. The retreat will include group sharing and discussion, meditation with live music from guitarist Tom Duesterhoeft, periods of silence, and time for journaling and individual reflection. Whether the practice of compassion is deeply familiar or new to you, you will have an opportunity to peacefully extend your experience of compassion to yourself, others, and the world.
The formal retreat begins on Saturday, June 4, at 9:00 a.m. However, if you would like to deepen your retreat experience, you have the option to start on Friday evening and spend the night in a comfortable private room at Monte Alverno retreat center. There will be an informal welcome and program starting at 7:30 p.m. for those attending Friday.
Please call or email LifePath and register as soon as you can for this wonderful event. The number of participants will be limited, and we have already had a very good response. The price of the Saturday retreat will be $75, which includes lunch and snacks during the day. If you'd like to start the retreat by joining us for the Friday evening program and spending the night, the price (which includes the Saturday retreat) will be $135 and will provide breakfast as well.
We also encourage you to visit and support the Appleton Compassion Project. Over 10,000 Appleton area school children learned about compassion and created their own artistic statement related to it, and their work is on display at the Trout Museum in Appleton. You can find out more about the Appleton Compassion Project at appletoncompassion.org
XXXXXXXXX
Individual counseling and healing sessions can help you identify what's most important in your life and take the next step to make it a reality. If inner barriers are holding you back, we can work in a deep way to help you move forward. In doing so, we'll help you find a way to live a life more closely aligned with who you really are. You'll find that you can change patterns of negative thinking and feeling, improve relationships, make your work more meaningful, and create greater happiness for yourself and the people around you.
In my career as a psychologist, I've learned a wide variety of effective therapeutic techniques and strategies that are much more than "just talking about it," and we will tailor the approach to your specific situation and needs. In addition to being a transformational and healing experience on their own, individual sessions can also be a wonderful way to supplement your Everyday Compassion retreat and Deepest Truth workshop experience.
Individual sessions are one hour, and the cost is $125 per session. Payment is made at the time of the session. You may schedule individual sessions at any time by calling 920-996-0887.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To be able to care about and help another person - to be compassionate - is at the heart of why many of us choose to work with medical patients.
But we can easily get distracted and pressured by other things - the record-keeping, meetings, patient phone calls, and other tasks we have to do. We begin to feel we can't afford the time or attention that patients need from us. Or perhaps we've have been hurt by a patient or a colleague, and not want someone to take advantage of us again. Perhaps we judge some of the people we work with, and deem them unworthy of our help. Or we've become burned out, or are suffering compassion fatigue from the constant burden of caring.
Having a successful career devoted to caring for and helping others means learning how to be compassionate in ways that we can sustain for the long term. It's about learning to see and listen to each other - and to ourselves and what we need - in a humane and caring way that does not burden our lives, but makes them richer and more meaningful.
LifePath's Everyday Compassion Retreat for Medical Caregivers will help you reinvigorate the experience of compassion in your work and daily life. Taking place at the beautiful Monte Alverno Retreat Center along the Fox River in Appleton, the weekend retreat will be lead by health psychologist Dr. Albert Bellg. It will focus on developing a practice for compassionate seeing and listening, "simple centering" of attention, accepting and respecting ourselves and others, and cultivating a discerning wisdom to guide our helping actions. Our goal is to help you build familiarity and comfort with making compassion a part of your ongoing response in your work with medical patients.
The retreat will include group sharing and discussion, guided meditation with live music, periods of silence, and time for journaling and individual reflection. Whether the practice of compassion in your medical work is deeply familiar or new to you, you will have an opportunity to peacefully extend your experience of compassion to yourself and others.
The retreat begins on Friday at 6:30 p.m., and ends Sunday at about 2:00 p.m. The price of $385 per person (or $350 per person in a group of two or more) includes two nights in a comfortable private room at Monte Alverno retreat center, meals and snacks during the day.
The total number of participants will be limited to 18, so please register as soon as you can for this event. You can register by emailing me at albert.bellg@att.net with your name, address and phone number, or by calling 920-996-0887.
Democracy's Habits of the Heart
How we live together in our democracy is a question that's closely related to both the deepest truth we know (following the "better angels of our nature," as Lincoln put it) and our compassionate response to others. How do we build on our strengths and what we do well as individuals and as a nation - yet have the courage and wisdom to address the suffering that is sometimes caused by them? At a time in our history when we have, in many ways, lost the thread of how to communicate with each other and take effective action as a nation, we are exploring ideas and tools to help us to engage with each other more insightfully, compassionately and courageously in our ongoing conversation about our life together.
- Respect Democracy is inspired by educator Parker Palmer's recent book, Healing the Heart of Democracy. It is intended to help us create "a politics worthy of the human spirit" and address our inner and outer conflicts around our political ideas and passions. Respect Democracy (the website and blog) should be online in a few weeks.
about me
My own life path has taken me many places. For most of the last 16 years, however, I've been a clinical health psychologist working primarily with heart patients and people with other serious medical and emotional problems.
After helping people deal with the often profound changes that occurred in their lives as a result of medical illness, I began to see that in addition to traditional psychotherapy, I had something else to offer people looking to find greater clarity in their lives and a less conflicted, more compassionate way of relating to others and the world. So in April, 2010, I moved out of cardiology and opened LifePath LLC to explore new ways of serving others.
In the last two years, I've offered workshops and retreats on the process of becoming aware of our inner wisdom and what I call living the deepest truth you know. Building on the energy and activity around the Appleton Compasssion Project in the spring of 2011, we had a wonderful retreat at Monte Alverno retreat center in Appleton called Everyday Compassion. In September of 2012, I facilitated Mindful Care, a retreat for medical professionals, and we'll do this retreat again in March, 2013. Our work has now evolved into a more insight-focused and person-centered way of doing psychotherapy, individual Clarity Sessions, and retreats, workshops and classes. We have also co-sponsored showings of The Happy Movie in the Appleton area, and I recently completed writing a book about the experience of living the deepest truth we know.
If you're curious about professional credentials and experience, my doctoral degree is from the University of Rochester in New York, and I participated in advanced training fellowships at the University of Rochester and at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. I did clinical work and NIH-funded research as the Director of Cardiac Psychology at the Rush Heart Institute in Chicago for six years, and then continued my work with cardiac patients at the Appleton Heart Institute in Appleton, Wisconsin. In addition to medical patients, I have worked with a wide range of clients with depression, anxiety, PTSD, abuse, and other psychological problems. I am currently on the board of the Wisconsin Psychological Association.
As LifePath has evolved and grown, I am grateful to my wife, Laurin Bellg, MD, for her encouragement, support, and insightful ideas; to my friend and associate, Janet Stratton, for her creativity and organizational skills (and fabulous baked goods); to my friend, Tom Duesterhoeft, for his musical inspiration; to Parker J. Palmer, for his wisdom and insight in his books and retreats; to the many advisors and supporters who've helped along the way; and to our workshop participants who have brought forth remarkable wisdom that has helped us learn and do better. Thank you, all!