Tag: Healing

With Laura Pole, RN, MSN, PCNS

I would like to personally dedicate this class in memory of our dear participant and friend Leah Fitchue, who did everything she did with gusto, including eating my food!

Getting well never tasted so good! 

Come savor together the last days of summer and celebrate your life, challenges and all, in a day filled with learning, cooking, eating and savoring in good company. Menu items to include grilled fish or tempeh tacos, watermelon gazpacho, fresh grilled peaches and more. Chef Laura awaits you in the Healing Kitchen to celebrate life with nourishment!

*Please Note: Every individual’s needs are unique. We aim to offer a variety of health-promoting options for each individual to consider, but do not prescribe the specific dietary content of any program for anyone.

Suggested donation: $25, includes a health-supportive meal and all recipes

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Laura Pole

Laura Pole, RN, MSN, comes with a diverse educational background including a Masters degree in nursing, chef certification, and professional music training. For over 20 years, she has been merging her careers as a health supportive chef, professional musician, oncology clinical nurse specialist, and a palliative care educator. Laura serves Smith Center in several ways: Director of Nourishment Education Programs, Director of Professional Trainings in Culinary Translation and Co-Creator/Coordinator of Patient Navigation Trainings. Laura is also on faculty for the nationally acclaimed Cancer-Fighting Kitchen workshops.

with Julia Rowland, Ph.D.

Does harnessing procrastination to promote change sound like a paradox? It turns out that we procrastinate for a reason, possibly one that is deeply rooted in our emotions. Come explore what keeps us from reaching our goals and learn more about yourself along the way.

About Julia H. Rowland, Ph.D.

Dr. Rowland, newly named Senior Strategic Advisor to Smith Center, comes to this position as a long-time clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of psychosocial aspects of cancer. She has worked with and conducted competitively funded research among both pediatric and adult cancer survivors and their families, published broadly in psycho-oncology and co-edited the ground-breaking text, Handbook of Psychooncology.  Dr. Rowland received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in psychosocial oncology. While at MSKCC, where she held joint appointments in pediatrics and neurology, Dr. Rowland helped to develop and was the first Director of the Post-Treatment Resource Program, one of the first non-medical survivorship care programs to be offered by a major cancer center in the U.S. In 1990 Dr. Rowland moved to Washington, DC to become founding Director of the Psycho-Oncology Program at Georgetown University and the Lombardi Cancer Center. Nine years later, in September of 1999, she was recruited to the National Cancer Institute to become the first, full-time Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship, a position in which she served for 18 years, championing the growth of survivorship research and care, before stepping down in September 2017 to assume her new role at Smith Center.

Good Vibrations Tibetan Sound

With Jameson Freeman

founder of FABUM Inc. & Robert Lee, sound frequency specialist at Human Activation 

The ‘moment-making’ non-profit FABUM presents a Sound Bath with Crystal Ashram for an enchanting evening of restoration and inspiration. Come enjoy this uniquely designed sound and meditation program, as we allow the ancient frequencies of Tibetan singing bowls to wash over us and nourish mind, body and spirit.

Suggested Donation: $0

Our programs are open to the community and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone. All donations support future programming at Smith Center.

About Jameson Freeman 

Jameson is an advocate, artist, entrepreneur, yoga-meditation practitioner and student. He is founder of FABUM Inc., a nonprofit arts organization, and has helped develop two technology startups.

He has written, produced and directed several theatrical works and has performed in diverse productions and venues in Washington, DC, New York City and Philadelphia. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Arts Club of Washington, where he chairs the organization’s Drama and Programs Committees.

Inspired by BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of the CETAB (Cleaner Environment Through Accountability in Bankruptcy) advocacy campaign, he lobbied Congress in 2010 to amend the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to prevent corporate environmental clean up costs (such as from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) being passed on to U.S. tax payers.

He launched and stewards the Diplomats of Dance Society, which supports the cultural diplomacy of the internationally acclaimed Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. A classical ballet dancer growing up, Jameson and his husband, choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess, established a fund to nurture dance education at the University of New Mexico.

Jameson offers a free weekly restorative yoga class, as well as other meditation and awareness practice (from nature baths to events with Tibetan singing bowls) in the Washington, DC metro area.

He holds a 300-hour yoga teacher certification from the Swami Krishnananda Yoga Vidyapeeth Ashram in Mysore, India, and studied under Dr. Ashutosh Agarwal, disciple of Swami Krishnananda Saraswati, as well as under Hatha Yoga teacher and gold medalist Yogacharya Kadambari CP. He is currently enrolled in a two-year Karuna Training certification, a contemplative psychology program led by Archaya Melissa Moore, PhD., student of Chögyam Trungpa, Buddhist meditation master and founder of the Vajradhatu and Naropa University, as well as the Shambhala Training Method.

 

with Julia Rowland, Ph.D.

Behavior change, why is it so hard to do? Come and learn the answer to this age-old question, along with techniques you can use to reach the goals you set for yourself.  Even if you have long since given up those New Year’s resolutions, it is never too late to honor a commitment to improving your health and sense of well-being. Worry that the cancer may come back is the most common long-term effect of living with a history of cancer. Curiously, it is not the most frequently studied, leaving many to wonder how to manage this anxiety. Come learn about techniques and strategies to master fear of recurrence and embrace uncertainty.

About Julia H. Rowland, Ph.D.

Dr. Rowland, newly named Senior Strategic Advisor to Smith Center, comes to this position as a long-time clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of psychosocial aspects of cancer. She has worked with and conducted competitively funded research among both pediatric and adult cancer survivors and their families, published broadly in psycho-oncology and co-edited the ground-breaking text, Handbook of Psychooncology.  Dr. Rowland received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in psychosocial oncology. While at MSKCC, where she held joint appointments in pediatrics and neurology, Dr. Rowland helped to develop and was the first Director of the Post-Treatment Resource Program, one of the first non-medical survivorship care programs to be offered by a major cancer center in the U.S. In 1990 Dr. Rowland moved to Washington, DC to become founding Director of the Psycho-Oncology Program at Georgetown University and the Lombardi Cancer Center. Nine years later, in September of 1999, she was recruited to the National Cancer Institute to become the first, full-time Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship, a position in which she served for 18 years, championing the growth of survivorship research and care, before stepping down in September 2017 to assume her new role at Smith Center.

With Laura Pole, RN, MSN, PCNS

Getting well never tasted so good! 

Now it’s your turn to pick the topics around healthy nourishment that you’d like Chef Laura to “riff”  on!  She’d also love you to challenge her to design, on the spot, custom menus to work around your biggest cooking/eating challenges.  Chef Laura will prepare lunch—-maybe even an ” Iron Chef” challenge where you tell her what you’d like to see her do with the ingredients in the bountiful Smith Center pantry and the local Farmer Market! Come with your questions, challenge, curiosity, playfulness, and appetite!

Chef Laura will be shopping at the U Street Farmer’s Market, located on the corner of 14th & U Streets NW, prior to class. Those interested can meet her at 9:00am on Saturday morning for a tour of the market and talk about choosing seasonal foods.

*Please Note: Every individual’s needs are unique. We aim to offer a variety of health-promoting options for each individual to consider, but do not prescribe the specific dietary content of any program for anyone.

Suggested donation: $25, includes a health-supportive meal and all recipes

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Laura Pole

Laura Pole, RN, MSN, comes with a diverse educational background including a Masters degree in nursing, chef certification, and professional music training. For over 20 years, she has been merging her careers as a health supportive chef, professional musician, oncology clinical nurse specialist, and a palliative care educator. Laura serves Smith Center in several ways: Director of Nourishment Education Programs, Director of Professional Trainings in Culinary Translation and Co-Creator/Coordinator of Patient Navigation Trainings. Laura is also on faculty for the nationally acclaimed Cancer-Fighting Kitchen workshops.

with Michael Lerner

The healing power of love is beyond comprehension.  Yet love is also one of the most complex experiences in life, yielding pleasure and pain in equal measure.  Join Smith Center Co-Founder Michael Lerner to explore love in poetry, sacred texts, and archetypal psychology, drawing on Rumi, Hafiz, Jung, Hillman and others.

 About Michael Lerner

Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal and president emeritus and co-founder of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts.

At Commonweal, he is co-founder or founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School, and the Resilience Project.  He taught at Yale before founding Commonweal in 1976.  He received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1983.

With Kiersten Gallagher, RYT 200

Enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing and enhanced energy in our gentle yoga classes.  Learn various yoga postures, techniques in progressive relaxation, breathing practices, and meditation to help reduce stress, as well as balance mind, body, and spirit.  Our classes are specifically designed for adults facing stress, cancer, or other illness and are open to anyone interested in attending. All levels are welcome.

In addition, our yoga classes are listed with the National MS Society and we welcome patients and caregivers of those with multiple sclerosis to our gentle yoga classes.

Kiersten’s Gentle Morning Yoga Classes Meet Weekly on Thursdays from 10:15am – 11:30am.

Our programs are also open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

Suggested Donation for 1 Class: $10

Suggested Donation for 1 Month of Classes: $25

About Kiersten Gallagher

Kiersten Gallagher, RYT 200 and Certified Herbalist has studied yoga for over 25 years. Over the last decade, Kiersten has developed yoga programs and has provided a place for healing in the cancer community, in underprivileged neighborhoods, for special needs children, for teens and adults with drug addiction and for those struggling with body image.Kiersten invites you on a journey of healing to help guide you to a place where yoga will make a real difference in your life.  Kiersten’s goal for you is that you feel better when you leave class- mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, than you may have felt when you stepped through the door to begin your practice.

This program is postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date.

With Melanie Edwards

Join in harmony to relieve stress, find inner peace & express your authentic self with musical mending. Singer, songwriter and musician, Melanie Edwards, uses different instruments & singing techniques with therapeutic mantra chanting in a form of call and response to activate relaxation, calm the mind, and nourish the soul.

The unity of voices acts as a form of guided meditation, providing an outlet to purge bottled up emotions, thus opening the gates for healing vibrations.  This is not about performing or being a professional singer, but rather a shared experience of collective sound healing in the present moment.  Participants are free to join or simply observe in shared space, as well as bring their own mantras, words or poems to self-reflect and express via musical mending.

Suggested Donation: $20

Our programs are open to the community and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone. All donations support future programming at Smith Center.

About Melanie Edwards

Melanie Edwards is an award-winning singer, songwriter, pianist, violinist and essayist. She is best known for her hit single “Daniel’s Lane,” winner of several accolades including Ourstage’s “New Music Revolution Achievement Award,” thrice, and “Best Single” in her genre by “Mashable,” which catapulted her into The Deli’s “Top 100 Best Songwriters of NYC.”

Melanie’s popular single “Who’s Gonna Color in the Middle?” received “Best of World Music” three consecutive months. Her single “Sugar” won “Top Achievement Award in Best Singer-Songwriter,” and she was awarded “Best in Jazz” for her ballad “No More Drinking.”

Melanie ranked “Top 100 Best of Pop” on Ourstage in 2015, as well as “Best Singer Songwriter” for her single “The Circle” in the Online Music Awards.  Likewise, she won the Damien Rice Lyric Contest for her rendition of Rice’s “9 Crimes” (her version “9 Crimes Response”) as “Best Cover” for Artists Den. Melanie has also been nominated as “Best Singer/Songwriter + Best Original Songwriting” for The Independent Artist Network for the Music Arts.

Melanie was awarded a research grant for songwriting at Can Serrat International Artist Residency in Barcelona (twice), received grants for music and songwriting at Odysseys Artist Residency in Costa Rica, and enjoyed a two month scholarship for music at Arteles Creative Residency Program in Hameenkyro, Finland.

with Kiersten Gallagher, RYT-200

Enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing and enhanced energy in our gentle yoga classes.  Learn various yoga postures, techniques in progressive relaxation, breathing practices, and meditation to help reduce stress, as well as balance mind, body, and spirit.  Our classes are specifically designed for adults facing stress, cancer, or other illness and are open to anyone interested in attending. All levels are welcome.

In addition, our yoga classes are listed with the National MS Society and we welcome patients and caregivers of those with multiple sclerosis to our gentle yoga classes.

Kiersten’s Gentle Morning Yoga Classes meet Weekly on Thursdays from 10:15am – 11:30am.

Our programs are also open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

Suggested Donation for 1 Class: $10

Suggested Donation for 1 Month of Classes: $25

About Kiersten Gallagher

Kiersten Gallagher, RYT 200 and Certified Herbalist has studied yoga for over 25 years. Over the last decade, Kiersten has developed yoga programs and has provided a place for healing in the cancer community, in underprivileged neighborhoods, for special needs children, for teens and adults with drug addiction and for those struggling with body image.Kiersten invites you on a journey of healing to help guide you to a place where yoga will make a real difference in your life.  Kiersten’s goal for you is that you feel better when you leave class- mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, than you may have felt when you stepped through the door to begin your practice.

with Lady Nwadike

Movement, expression, imagery and creativity can facilitate wellness. This class will practice techniques to help deal with tension, enhance relaxation, and cope with medical procedures and physical limitations. All levels welcome.

Suggested Donation: $15

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Lady Nwadike 

Lady Nwadike received her Master’s in Biophysics and Physiology with a concentration in Complementary and Integrative Medicine from Georgetown University. During her coursework, she was familiarized with ancient easter medical practices and strives to integrate evidence based methods into a more traditional western approach, encouraging mind-body wellness. She has also been involved in numerous social justice campaigns and showcases her work on various social media outlets. Her work in research, advocacy and health has always kept minority issues and interests at the forefront. She is also the Editor and Chief for MaryJane of Maryland, a premier medical cannabis magazine for the state of MD. She also presents within the DC and MD community on safe and effective uses of cannabis for wellness. She is interested in exploring the mosaic we create for ourselves throughout our lives where parts of herself and others intersect, as I believe that it is at these points where individuals are their most raw vulnerable. Those two things breed passion and understanding, which in turn can lead to change of how we take care of ourselves and others.