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To Dwell in Your House
Vignettes and Spiritual Reflections on Caregiving at Home
Imprint: Resource Publications
To Dwell in Your House: Vignettes and Spiritual Reflections on Caregiving at Home addresses the large population in need of more resources for the sacred work of caregiving. With current trends in healthcare, the objective is to keep patients out of hospitals, and to provide care at home. And yet, there are so few resources for caregivers in the home. Going beyond clinical pointers for caregiving, this book offers encouragement and inspiration, with thirty original and compelling vignettes. While these stories arise out of a professional chaplain's actual spiritual care visits, the insights and wisdom are relevant to anyone who faces the struggles and joys of being in a caregiving relationship. Additionally, the book provides contemplations to guide caregivers in their own personal growth, reflections to share with those patients who would benefit from spiritual reassurance, and theory upon which caregivers can build a solid foundation to support their efforts into the future. While caregiving can be a lonely business, through this book, caregivers will attain a sense of camaraderie with other caregivers. Besides giving practical strategies for interacting meaningfully and effectively with patients and their families, this book affirms the gift of caregiving, and also understands the challenges associated with it.
Susan Freeman is a chaplain and teacher of clinical pastoral education (ACPE Certified Educator) at a hospital home health agency serving San Diego County. Prior to her current position, she served as a hospice chaplain for many years. Rabbi Freeman is the author of Teaching Hot Topics (2003) and Teaching Jewish Virtues: Sacred Sources and Art Activities (1999) and has published several articles in professional journals.
“To Dwell in Your House provides rich spiritual companionship to those who themselves are dedicated to providing spiritual companionship to the ill. The brief, accessible, clear vignettes illuminate with brilliant psycho-spiritual insight many of the core issues we face when our health is compromised, and how the sensitive care provider can effectively accompany, uplift, and comfort . . .”
—Nancy Flam, Senior Program Director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality
“Freeman offers unique insights into the resources and struggles of patients who confront challenging health crises at home. She takes the reader along on some of her home-health visits and describes how chaplains address spiritual needs and ‘co-journey’ with patients and families. Including diverse religious and secular perspectives, she stimulates deeper reflection of spiritual questions that arise in patient encounters. This book is a rich resource for chaplains as well as other healthcare professionals who attend to spiritual and existential aspects of their work.”
—Dagmar Grefe, Author of Encounters for Change
“I love these artful demonstrations of spiritual care presented in a way that will give the reader valuable tools for developing and refining their own clinical experience. Wisdom and truth speak through the examples shared. I expect your life and work will be enriched, as mine is, through these stories.”
—Martha Rutland, Director of ACPE at VITAS Healthcare, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
“Right from the outset of her wise new book, To Dwell in Your House, Susan Freeman points out that ‘we are all caregivers.’. . . we will all face the sometimes profound and sometimes exhausting task of finding the right words and actions to relieve the spiritual pain of a person who is seriously ill or dying. There is no recipe for how to respond to a patient’s, and our own, needs at such challenging times. Instead, this book provides a bountiful buffet of insightful reflections, healing inspirations, and tangible suggestions for those of us who become caregivers by choice or necessity.”
— Laura Michaels, Licensed Professional Counselor, Denver, Colorado
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