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Prior to committing to making THE HUMAN JOURNEY® a working reality in professional settings around the country, Sara was a tenured professor in leadership studies. She is committed to serving those who work with families in hospice, healthcare, veterans services, and prison settings. Her work on an extraordinary yoga program started and run by incarcerated men in western Illinois was published in 2019 and she was featured in a Canadian documentary on the program, as well as on radio and television programs on her work as a performance anthropologist. 

Among her other writings are the books Art of Darkness, Vital Mummies, and Concert Song as Seen; and the plays American Yogi, Color Story, In Peerage Out, and Reprehensible Shoes. During her years in New York City, Sara was the founder and artistic director of the theatre company Chaparral Productions. 

You can find more about her work here; https://the-human-journey.com/

L’Arche is a place of mutually transformative relationships. All of us, whether or not we live with an intellectual disability, desire a sense of belonging. In L’Arche, people of differing intellectual capacities, social origins, religions, and cultures build relationships rooted in trust and vulnerability. By sharing daily life together, community members experience L’Arche as a “University for the Heart,” where they learn true friendship and teach one another to love unconditionally.

You can read more about L’Arche USA here; https://www.larcheusa.org/

Episode talking points

Dr. Doka’s childhood, family, and faith backgrounds

CPE experience in the early 70s

His master’s degree thesis on “Pastoral counseling to the dying child and his family” and the reason behind that title.

Changes in grief theories and understanding of grief in the last 50 years

The story behind his first book “disenfranchised grief” in 1989

The role of rituals in facilitating grief

The background behind his book, “Death and spirituality”

Christina Puchalski’s role in the development of spiritual care in the healthcare setting

His assumption that following this pandemic we are going to have a pandemic of complicated grief.

The need for chaplains to have good counseling referral sources.

His potential fiction book

The story behind his book “Grieving beyond gender.”

Katy Butler is also a thought leader in the national movement for medical reform.  A popular speaker on doctor-patient communication and the choices families face near the end of life, Katy has given keynotes and Grand Rounds at Harvard Medical School, Kaiser Permanente, UCSF, and elsewhere. 

Born in South Africa and raised in Oxford, England, Katy came to America as a girl, earned a BA from Wesleyan University, and was a staff reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker; Mother Jones; Scientific American,Atlantic,, Tricycle, Psychotherapy Networker; Best American Essays, and Best American Science Writing.