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The Integrative Palliative Podcast
Hosted by integrative palliative medicine physician, Dr. Delia Chiaramonte, The Integrative Palliative Podcast helps physicians and clinicians guide families facing serious illness to physical and emotional wellbeing. Listeners will find insights, skills and knowledge in evidence-supported integrative symptom management, as well as attention to their own self-care, because you can't pour from an empty cup!
Everyone who cares for seriously ill people will find something for themselves and their patients in this podcast. It is targeted not only to those who practice palliative care, but also to physicians and clinicians in oncology, radiation oncology, neurology, geriatrics, rheumatology, hospital medicine, intensive care, and more.
While the podcast is targeted to those who care for patients and clients, family caregivers will find many pearls to help them care for their ill or aging and loved one, while also caring for themself. All are welcome!
Visit The Institute for Integrative Palliative Medicine for more information on clinician and caregiver trainings and to book Dr. Chiaramonte as a speaker www.integrativepalliative.com
Episodes
174 episodes
Meditative Heartbeat Therapy: An Interview with Daniel Deloma
Palliative care chaplain Daniel Deloma shares the powerful modality that he uses with seriously ill, hospice and end of life patients - Meditative Heartbeat Therapy.It helps reduce pain, anxiety, and fear and has powerful impacts on pati...
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Nobody Prepares You for This
When a loved one has a serious illness like cancer or dementia, or they have age-related decline, it can seem like your life has turned upside-down. Nobody prepares you for this.Sometimes the skills that are helpful in regular life actua...
Self-Forgiveness - The Antidote to Shame
Caregivers put so much energy into caregiving yet they still struggle with self-criticism and feeling like their best isn't good enough.Every caregiver deserves self-forgiveness.Listen this week to find out the five areas that can...
How to Talk to Your Doctor So They Don't Blow You Off
It is hard to be a doctor and it is hard to be a patient (or a family member of a patient). Everyone in the healthcare system is frustrated.Both patients and doctors are doing their best, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Doctors a...
What to do When You're Having an Especially Bad Day
Sometimes you just have an especially bad day. If you are a caregiver who cares for a mom, dad, or spouse with a serious illness like cancer, Alzheimer's disease, other dementia illnesses, or ALS you may be familiar with caregiver stress and yo...
Visiting Your Aging Parents Over the Holidays: What to Watch For and When to Worry
When you visit your ill or aging parents over the holidays, you might be in for a surprise. Maybe your mom seems confused or your dad is having trouble with driving. Maybe you're not sure if the changes you're seeing are something to worry abou...
10 Ways to Get the Best Hospice Care for Your Loved One
Some people have wonderful experiences with hospice, and other people say the experience was terrible. What's the difference?If your loved one is sick enough to need hospice, it's a highly stressful time for your whole family. Whether yo...
A Meditation to Make Peace With Grief
Grief is tough. It is so very hard when a loved one dies. Whether it is expected because of serious illness or a total shock, grief is painful. And also, grief is part of life. Sometimes people compound their suffering by asking "Wh...
The Mindful Approach to Grief
Facing a serious loss after a loved one has died is just so tough. Without meaning to we can compound the stress of it all by how we approach our grief.The mindful approach to grief involves noticing, not judging, and using compassionate...
The Responsible One, The Favorite, and The Ghost: How Childhood Roles Shape Caregiving
Caregiving doesn't just happen in the current moment - it brings old family roles that we've been playing out since childhood back to life. The "responsible one" burns out, and the "favorite" expects everyone to defer to them. The "ghost" fades...
Writing a Meaningful Letter to a Loved One
When someone is nearing the end of life, the idea of leaving behind a “goodbye” or legacy letter can feel meaningful, but also overwhelming. What do you say? How do you start? In this episode, Dr. Delia offers a gentle guide to writing a letter...
How to Receive Love: A Powerful Interview with Michael L Smith
We all need this episode. Whether you're a family caregiver, caring for an ill or aging loved one, or you're a busy clinician who cares for seriously ill patients, this episode is for you.Michael L Smith shares his wisdom and inspiration...
Caring for Yourself as You Care for Your Aging Parent
Caring for a parent who is aging or who has dementia, debility, or serious illness such as cancer can be absolutely exhausting. It can feel like you're hanging on by your fingernails. This week on The Integrative Palliat...
When Your Parent Won't Accept Your Help: 20 Ways to Make it Better
If your parent has cancer, dementia, serious illness, or is just declining because they're getting older, you may feel the urge to help them as they get weaker. Perhaps you make space in your busy life, juggle responsibilities with both your pa...
Grieving is Not a Competition
There are so many kinds of grieving. You may be grieving the death of a loved one, a pet, a breast, a job, or you may be experiencing anticipatory grief for a loved one who is ill or aging.Grief is not a competition.There is no hi...
Caring for an Aging Parent with Siblings Who Are Driving You Crazy
Caring for an aging parent is hard in the best of circumstances. Whether your parent has cancer, Alzheimer's disease, another form of dementia, or an end of life condition, it can be overwhelming, exhausting, and stressful to support them as th...
Zoom Funerals: How to Make a Powerful and Meaningful Service Without Leaving Your House
Zoom memorials or celebrations of life get a bad rap. They may be seen as a second class way to honor a loved one - far less meaningful than a standard funeral.Let's rethink that narrative!Having a celebration of life by Zoom can ...
Beyond the Urn: Creative Things to Do with Your Loved One's Ashes
After the death of a loved one, it can be difficult to know what to do with their ashes. In this episode of The Integrative Palliative Podcast we explore the many meaningful ways people can honor their loved ones by using their ashes in creativ...
The Power of Permission When Times are Tough
When a loved one is sick and caregiving gets exhausting, it can be powerful to have someone give you permission to take a break.Should you need their permission? Of course not. But the voices in your mind can be critical and bossy and in...
Three Words That Help Reduce Distress in Difficult Times
When someone you love is is ill or had died, life feels hard. Yet sometimes we add to our distress by judging how we are feeling or behaving. We feel sad and then we feel critical that we're still sad. We feel angry and ...
Fragments and Light: An Exploration of Traumatic Grief
In this deeply personal and powerful episode, Dr. Delia Chiaramonte shares her experience of traumatic loss of both her father and her father-in-law. Traumatic grief is not just about missing someone—it’s about having your sense of ...
A Call for Medical Aid in Dying: A Tale of Autonomy and Desperation
Not having access to Medical Aid in Dying can drastically increase suffering for dying people and their families.This week I'll share a deeply personal and painful story about a dying man who wanted to have control over his death and wha...
Bearing Witness to Grief: A Powerful Way to Support Someone Who is Grieving
It's been an interesting experience for me to experience the loss of my dad and both feel my own grief and also observe it with the lens of a palliative care physician.I have noticed how healing it has been for me when others bear witnes...
Anticipatory Grief: A View From the Inside
Grief isn't only an issue after a person dies. Anticipatory grief shows up long before a person has passed away. Families facing dementia, ALS, cancer, renal failure, and other serious illnesses can experience anticipatory grief long before the...
Advance Directive Dos and Don'ts: Key Advice for Your Patients, Your Family and Yourself
Everyone should have an advanced directive. Full stop. You, your parents, your partner, your adult kids - everyone.Most people know that having an advance directive is important but they feel awkward or anxious about actually making it h...