The Integrative Palliative Podcast

If you could save your loved one from their serious illness, you would do that. Of course you would. You love them and you want the best for them, whether they're battling cancer, Alzheimer's disease, ALS, age-related decline, or another advanced illness. You want to be the best caregiver you can be, and I'll bet you're exhausted. Yet you may be spending your precious energy tr...

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 patient, family and caregiver wellbeing. It is a technique that family members can use to help their own stress, help their grieving, and support their loved one. Lea...

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 actually make caregiving harder. But you can repurpose those skills to make caregiving easier. This episode of The Integrative Palliative Podcast will show you why hyp...

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 lead caregivers to carry shame, and what they can do about it. Your wellbeing matters. Doctor Delia www. DoctorDelia.com Coping Courageously: A Heart-Centered Gui...

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 are busy and burned out which can make patients and families feel blown off or disrespected. The week on The Integrative Palliative Podcast you'll get an...

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 you've probably had multiple especially bad days. How do you handle them? What works to reduce your suffering? On this week's episode of The In...

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 about or are just normal aging.  What should you look for? What should you worry about? What changes are not actually concerning? In this episode of T...

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 your loved one has cancer, dementia, ALS, COPD or another serious illness, making the decision for when to request hospice care is tough. Once you've...

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 "Why am I still grieving so hard?" or "Shouldn't I be better by now?" Trying to push grief away doesn't help. In fact, it can make grieving...

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 curiosity. It makes space for grief because grief is part of life and love.  Here is the reference mentioned in the episode:  Huang FY, et al. Mindfulness-based...

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 into the background, and the "rebel" resists every decision.  In this episode Dr. Delia Chiaramonte explo...

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 that captures your love, gratitude, and wisdom without the pressure to be perfect. You’ll learn: Why legacy letters matter so deeply for both the writer an...

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 inspirational guidance about how we all block the love that we deserve and how we can learn to receive it. Michael is a visionary author, speaker, and transformati...

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 Palliative Podcast we're talking about 15 ways to help you care for yourself as you care for your aging parent. Your wellbeing matters too. - Dr. Delia www.integrativepalliati...

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 parents and your kids, research the best care, and just try your best to show up for your parents.  When you do all that it can be shocking and frustrati...

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 hierarchy of grief. Some people are grieving the loss of a spouse or the loss of a child or the loss of a sibling or parent. Everyone's grief is individual, and ther...

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 their health declines. Add in challenging relationships with your siblings, and the whole mess can feel unmanageable. This week on The Integrative Pallia...

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 be a powerful and meaningful way to honor your loved one who has died. They are easier to plan and they allow far away friends and relatives to attend and celebrat...

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 creative ways. From stones to records to jewelry to coral reefs (and more), there are many ways to use your loved one's ashes. Choosing a meaningful approach...

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 insist that you continue to work or take care of other people until you're completely exhausted, stressed and depleted. This week we discuss the power of permi...

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 then feel guilty that we feel angry. It is the "shoulds" that cause us distress - it doesn't have to be that way. This week I'll share the 3 words that c...

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 the world torn apart. It can show up in surprising ways: emotional numbness, panic, guilt, dissociation, and even physical symptoms. In this episode, you’ll learn how...

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 what why he had to face it alone. Helping healers heal others and themselves. Delia Delia Chiaramonte, MD www.integrativepalliative.com Coping Courageously: A H...

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 witness to my pain and also when they bear witness to my dad as a person. This is how we can best support people who are grieving after someone they love has died:...

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 very end of life. This week we take a look at anticipatory grief from the inside because my family is facing it right now. This episode is for you if...