Anyone with chronic illness. Caregivers for people with chronic illness. Professionals in healing modalities that are supporting people with chronic illness.
Healing the Trauma
The wounds of chronic illness are more than physical. Part of the path of illness is acknowledging and working with the emotional and psychological layers of trauma.
Get StartedLearn to live more fully with illness by discovering, healing, and integrating the many wounds that the experience of illness creates.
Actionable Information
6 modules packed with helpful ideas, questions, and practices.
Meaningful Interaction
6 live Zoom calls which feature both teaching and discussion, recorded and archived on the site. Be apart of a supportive group of participants to share with and learn from.
Useful Resources
Multiple materials including PDF downloads, links to helpful resources and in depth videos. PLUS access a special bonus course: The Six Skills Of Meditation.
Our 6-week virtual course will show you how to heal from these traumas and integrate the emotions they cause. It will also help you build more resilience and strength so that you can continue to walk this path without constantly adding to your trauma.
Register Now!Living with chronic illness inflicts a series of traumas from the illness itself to the changes it inflicts on your lifestyle and your relationships. It is traumatic for both those who are ill and for those who care for them.
And because the trauma is ongoing, it can be hard to heal the psyche and to step forward into life again. These traumas can include the derailment or postponement of dreams and hopes and misunderstanding from healthcare providers, friends, and even family members.
This trauma can be healed even if you or your loved one is still on the journey of healing from or living with a chronic illness.
This Course Will Help You:
This Course Is For:
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Pay what you can afford. No one will be turned away for financial reasons.
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Course Overview
Week 1: Overview. What Is a Koan? Traumatized Patient, Traumatized Caregiver
Week 2: Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion
Week 3: Boundaries and Beliefs
Week 4: Individual and Collective Shadows
Week 5: Reality and Responsibility
Week 6: The Golden Shadow
Your Instructor
Dr. Lynn Royster Fuentes
Lynn is a college instructor, educational course designer, and a mediator with a BA, MA, JD, and PhD. An experienced classroom and online instructor, she has designed and taught courses in transpersonal psychology, writing, planning, chronic illness, and conflict management at DePaul University, where she also founded and directed the Chronic Illness Initiative, a program to help students with chronic illness obtain a degree.
A devoted student of Ken Wilber and integral philosophy, she has published integrally oriented essays and articles on conflict resolution and illness management and weaves integral ideas into her course design and teaching. She follows an integral life practice of physical, psychological, meditative, and cognitive development.
Lynn has volunteered in many capacities – with battered women, people in the recovery community, and people with chronic illness – and served on the board of the Solve ME/CFS Association of America for many years. Despite her study of many disciplines, Lynn regards her greatest learning as long-term caregiver for severely ill family members.
FAQs
Do I have to do all of the courses? Or, do them in order?
What if I can’t attend the live calls?
Who are these courses for?
Testimonials
Wendy
And Lynn – simply wow! Thanks for being such a pioneer and putting such an educational and heart-full class together for our benefit. I will read and re-read your handouts as I continue to live with this chronic illness. Your work is a blessing and a deep comfort to me. It is good to be understood and to have partners on this journey. So thank you for showing up on my computer – I will never forget you!
Liz Taylor
As a person struggling with a chronic condition, I find the world isn’t often interested in hearing about my challenges when they come back again and again. But being able to hear from, respond to and talk live with others who share that experience gave me a sense of being seen and heard in such a healing way. Never have I felt so connected to so many new friends in such a deep and meaningful way.
Heather
Lynn has created a way of seeing our experience of illness that empowers and enlivens. Being part of her course let’s me know I’m part of a greater whole where my challenges are shared. I can feel connected, seen and heard. Even the difficult stuff is allowed.
Brent
I can’t count the blessings and benefits these courses have been for me. When I was first looking for a sponsor in AA, it was suggested that I look for a man “that had something I wanted”. Don’t worry, I have a sponsor – but that’s the feel I get from you.
You have a wonderful presence – kind, wise and humble. I’m not the best book learner/reader – I’m more experiential. This has been a great experience in learning Integral theory and practice.
Thank you! Deep bow of gratitude.
Susan Schuurmans
The course has prodded me out of my comfort zones, humbled me when I see the challenges others face, invited me into a valuable self-assessing of myself, and challenged me to engage once again with the Integral model, this time grittily working on my understanding of myself and where I can grow into further ways to work with great consciousness with this dis-ease. Lynn teaches from a place of being a person still learning after all these years in the territory of illness and caretaking and shares as a companion on this challenging journey how she finds the perspective of Integral is useful when living with illness.
Laria
This course is wonderfully thought provoking and has so many valuable tools I hope to keep revisiting it again and again to further contemplate all that you have given us.
Using Illness as an Accelerator of Spiritual Intelligence and Awakening is part 5 of our 6-part Koan of Illness series..
Each of our stand-alone courses addresses a part of the illness experience and is designed both for people suffering from chronic illness and caregivers. You can begin with any of the courses, pick and choose, or do them all
More Info about KOI CoursesThe Koan Of Illness series
The Koan of Illness 1: Empowering Yourself
Does the complexity of chronic illness management overwhelm you? Do you struggle to navigate the paperwork, the emotions, the lifestyle changes that illness brings?
Everyone who deals with illness, whether patient, caregiver, provider, or administrator, deals with a complex mixture of personal, technical, institutional, and spiritual issues.
The Koan of Illness Part 2: Healing the Trauma
When you learn that illness is a part of your life and likely to be for some time, it is often a traumatic event. You may begin with denial and move through other stages such as anger or grief. You find that illness touches every aspect of your life – from your physical existence to your spirituality. Often it creates havoc with your relationships , your self-esteem, and your beliefs...
The Koan of Illness Part 3: Healing Your Relationships
Chronic illness brings changes and challenges to every relationship – your partner, children, parents, employer, friends, and even yourself. Your relationships can fracture or deepen depending on how you integrate illness into them.
The Koan of Illness Part 4: Illness as a Springboard for Personal Growth
Chronic illness can seem like a prison sentence, isolating you from life and taking away opportunities you might have had. However, illness is as valid a life path as any other, and, often, people with illness are able to use that difficulty to deepen their personal growth. In this course, we use the integral map to look at the process of individual growth...
The Koan of Illness Part 5: Chronic Illness and Spirituality
How does one find spirit in the midst of pain and loss? How can illness offer opportunities for spiritual growth? In this course, we use the integral map to look at the spiritual aspects of illness and explore how illness offers a path to awakening and an opportunity to develop spiritual intelligence.
The Koan of Illness Part 6: Integration: A New Vision for Healing
How can I create a personal plan for growth in the midst of the complexity that is illness and personal development?
How can I relate to the systems in which I have to operate?
What are my Koans?
