June 18th, 2008
Caring for Our Own Dead: Reclaiming a Sacred Tradition
Karen van Vuuren,
Founder and executive director, Natural Transitions

Interface Host: Chuck Gaylord


About the Presentation:
Natural Transitions is a non-profit educating and empowering families to care for their own at death. We honor all faiths and beliefs, but hold that death is a spiritual transition that is part of the cycle of life.  We believe that greater involvement with death reconnects us all to our mortality and offers opportunities for healing.

This presentation will include a brief history of Natural Transitions, touching upon the history of the funeral industry.  I will share some of my own personal experience with death that has drawn me to this work, as well as inspirational stories of clients who have cared for their own dead.


About the Presenter:

Karen van Vuuren is founder and director of non-profit, Natural Transitions.  Her first exposure to death and dying was as a child.  Karen’s younger brother was ill from birth, dying at the age of nine.  Many years later, following a career in broadcast and print journalism, Karen felt called to work with end of life.  Her training ground was as caregiver, volunteer coordinator, and co-administrator for an assisted living.  She has also worked for hospice, bearing witness to the journeys of the dying and their families.  Apart from her role as director of Natural Transitions, Karen recently began WordWise productions to create audio features and documentaries focusing on end of life issues.


Additional Resources:

Natural Transitions
P.O. Box 17848
Boulder, CO, 80308

www.naturaltransitions.org

Flyers of Upcoming Trainings:
Healing Life -Healing Death
Death and the Art of Dying: Eastern and Western Perspectives on Transforming Obstacle into Opportunity


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