How will I access the course or program?

Once you sign up you will receive a link to log into your course. You will set up a password and use that link whenever you want to access the course.

If you've signed up for the 8-week program you will receive information by email such as Zoom links and links to the Facebook community.

Is this the right course for me?

This course was made by Dr. Chiaramonte specifically for people who love or care for someone with a serious illness. It addresses common issues that are faced by many families, including creating a medical team, communicating about difficult topics and managing the stress associated with caring for an ill loved one.

What if I'm the person with the illness?

While this course is made for family members of the person with the illness, the information will be helpful for anyone facing a serious illness.

Will Dr. Chiaramonte give me medical advice for my loved one?

No. We assume that your loved one is seeing physicians and other healthcare providers who will be providing appropriate medical care. This program will give you information to help you navigate the experience of facing illness as a family, but it is not a substitute for a doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Chiaramonte doesn't have a doctor-patient relationship with you or your loved one, so she cannot (and will not) provide any medical advice.

Will Dr. Chiaramonte be my doctor?

No. This is an educational program that does not provide medical advice to your loved one or to you. Dr. Chiaramonte will not be your doctor, but we strongly recommend that you have a doctor who you can reach out to to support your own health and wellbeing.

When will we meet?

Our live Zoom meetings will be on Thursday evenings at 7:30pm Eastern time. They will be recorded so you can still join us even if that time doesn't work for you.

In the group program you'll accomplish the following things:

1. You'll get unstuck

if you're feeling paralyzed and unsure of how to proceed to best support your loved one, you'll develop clarity about what your family needs.

2. You'll create your community

No one can do this alone. We will strategize all the ways that you can get help and support on this challenging journey.

3. You'll learn to manage the medical machine

The medical system can be confusing and tough to deal with. Insider tips from a physician who has helped many families through the experience of serious illness can help.

4. You'll learn skills for medical decision making

Families facing serious illness often have complicated decisions to make. These can include treatment decisions, advance directives, and decisions about where to live or receive care.

5. You'll learn to talk about tough topics

It can be hard to talk to your loved ones about tough topics like treatment decisions, fears, and, especially, anything to do with mortality. It's hard, but it's important. You'll learn how to talk to anyone about anything that needs to be talked about.

6. You'll commit to self-care

When you're focused on your loved one's wellbeing, you may  end up ignoring your own needs. Even if you want to put your loved one first, you need to care for yourself so you have the energy to be an empathetic and effective caregiver. We'll practice practical stress management techniques that will make your life better.

7. You'll create an imperfect plan

When there is so much to do and so much to worry about, it can feel overwhelming. It can be hard to know what to do. There is no perfect plan for what you are facing, but creating an imperfect plan is doable and important. With the support of Dr. Chiaramonte and your peers, you will create your individualized imperfect plan.

8. You will process and share what you learned

In your final week you will process and share how you've grown, what you've learned, and what your future path will look like.

RECORDED COURSE:

Here is the outline of your recorded course:

This program has six modules plus an introduction and closing thoughts.

Module 1: Creating Your Team

Module 2: Making Medical Decisions

Module 3: Creating An Integrative Treatment Plan

Module 4: Mastering Challenging Communication

Module 5: Slow Down

Module 6: Fill Your Cup

You will learn ways to navigate the medical system effectively, practical tools for talking about tough things with your loved ones, and a simple plan to take care of yourself so you have the energy to be a caregiver.

Hi. I'm Dr. Chiaramonte. Welcome!

I am happy that you're here and I look forward to getting to know you.

I feel honored to have walked beside many patients and families as they faced serious or complex illness. Life is precious and facing illness or mortality can shake up the whole family. But it can also lead to deep personal meaning, improved relationships and restructuring life to get the most joy out of it that you can. 

I'm sure you wouldn't choose this challenging path that you're on, but now that you're on it I hope that you'll do all you can to make it as non-awful as possible.

Both of my daughters faced significant and complex medical conditions so I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed, frightened and unsure of where to turn. I am a doctor and I still felt that way!

I am deeply grateful to the patients who have allowed me to be a part of their lives. They enhanced my life at least as much as I enhanced theirs. 

In my career I have seen great personal meaning come from challenging experiences. But it is hard to find this meaning when you feel like you're hanging from the side of a cliff by your fingernails, just trying not to crash to the ground. I've been there. I get it.

When I was guiding my daughters during challenging times, the combination of information, practical tools, and radical self-care got me through the roughest parts and made me a better caregiver.

This experience sparked my desire to share information with other families who are facing tough medical situations.

I am now dedicating my time to teaching families how to navigate serious illness. I also teach physicians and other clinicians how to provide whole person care to families facing serious illness, using all the tools that work.

This is why I started the Integrative Palliative Institute and why I host The Integrative Palliative Podcast. Check it out - even though it is targeted to physicians you will find useful information there. 

Just in case you're wondering... 'palliative' means to relieve suffering. Palliative care is not the same as end of life care! Palliative care is appropriate at diagnosis of a serious illness - even if the family hoping for a cure. 

Palliative care addresses 3 'buckets' of things:

1) Symptom management - reducing pain, nausea, fatigue, depression, anxiety, etc.

2) Coping - managing stress or anticipatory grief.

3) Medical decision making - deciding about treatments, clinical trials, advance directives and more.

My speciality is integrative palliative care. I describe it as whole-person care for families facing serious illness, using all the tools that work.

If you work with me I will give you tools to make a hard situation a little easier. 

If you are interested in the recorded course and are able to pay the full fee, please do that so that I can continue to create new content to help more people. If you can't, please pay whatever you can. If you can't pay anything, please receive the course as a gift from me to help you on your journey.

If you want to work with me in the group program or one on one, I would be honored to help you reduce your overwhelm and improve your wellbeing. This wouldn't be medical care for you or your loved one, rather it would be teaching you powerful tools improve your ability to help your loved one while still caring for yourself.

Life can be hard, but it can also be sweet. 

Ideally we all walk beside each other and lift each other up when times are tough.

My goal as a human is to put good into the world and live authentically. What is yours?

I hope that I get to meet you soon.

- Dr. C

Delia Chiaramonte, MD

Imagine if you could remain calm, balanced, and positive even when life sends you tough challenges - like a loved one who is ill, stressful work or frustrating friends and relatives.

You can.

Mental fitness is our capacity to respond to life's challenges with a positive mindset, rather than a negative one.

Just like physical fitness helps us live a healthy life, mental fitness helps us lead a happy one - even when things go wrong and life feels stressful.

Strengthening your mental fitness can change your relationship to stressful events and give you the tools to navigate difficult situations in a more effective way.

The program that I lead is based on the work of Shirzad Chamine and his book, Positive Intelligence, which I highly recommend.

Here's the basic idea:

- We all have negative voices in our head that make us feel worse or act in ways that make life harder. These are our 'Saboteurs'.

- Learning to have self-command over those negative voices gives you the tools to face challenging times without getting out of balance. It allows you to develop self-mastery, rather than self-sabotage.

- When we activate our 'Sage' (the wise part of our mind) we can stay calm and focused, find creative solutions to our problems and take bold action when we need to. 

Basically, when we recognize our Saboteurs, put them back in their place and activate our Sage, life just feels better, even when it isn't perfect.

The mental fitness program will help you strengthen the part of your brain that serves you, and quiet the part that sabotages you. This allows you to handle the challenges that life sends your way with a more positive mindset, so you can have less stress.

This is mental fitness.

In the mental fitness program you will have a 6-week intensive experience that involves a weekly focus, daily practice and the use of an app designed to help you strengthen those key mental muscles: Saboteur Interceptor, Self-Command, and Sage. 

The program will teach you to shift the balance of power from your inner Saboteurs (your negative self) to your inner Sage (your positive self).

I will be your guide on this journey.