Sometimes our relationship with medicine, our career, our bodies, our purpose, or even who we thought we would become changes.

By choice or by circumstance.

And even when change is necessary, there can still be loss.

Descansos is a 90-minute virtual experience to pause and acknowledge some of those losses—and give them a resting place.

I first encountered the practice of descansos in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.

Descansos are resting places—markers for places where something ended.

We will be honoring the losses we feel in relation to medicine — abandoned dreams, betrayals, identities we’ve outgrown, and paths we thought we would take but didn’t. Or couldn’t.

The practice helped me recognize losses in my own relationship with medicine that I hadn’t necessarily recognized as grief.

When we honor something we loved, we can create space to dream and love again.

We’ll gather virtually as a small group of women physicians.

I’ll guide you through the Descansos practice, with time for personal reflection and an opportunity to share if you choose.

This will be a private, intimate experience and it will not be recorded.

I’ll ask everyone who participates to treat what others share as confidential and not repeat another participant’s story outside the group.

You will always choose what you engage with, what you share, and what you leave alone.

Suggested contribution: $25

You may contribute more to help another physician participate, or less/nothing if needed. No explanation necessary.

I’m a certified coach, and I’ll be facilitating this as a reflective coaching experience. It isn’t therapy, grief counseling, or mental-health treatment.

You will always choose what you engage with, what you share, and what you leave alone.