Fifty Plus…What’s Next?
About Elder Workshops
The last part of our life is filled with new challenges and blessings. New ways of engaging life become possible. As we age, we become the elders of our community guiding, healing, and shaping the future.
Bring any of these workshops to your organization for those who are 50 plus and beginning to explore what it means to be an engaged elder. Workshops can be custom designed using any of the elements below. Currently offering workshops remotely over Zoom with Facebook group enhancements.
Currently Scheduled
Available Workshops
Bring any of these workshops to your organization for those who are 50 plus and beginning to explore what it means to be an engaged elder. Workshops can be custom designed using any of the elements below. Workshops are offered online and in person.
Awakening the Sage Within (ASW) (6 hr program)
Stepping Across the Threshold to Eldering (8 session series) (1.5 hrs per session)
Wisdom Leadership (6 session online series) (2 hours per session)
Embracing the Crone (7 session online series) (2 hours per session)
Leaving a Legacy (3 session series) (1.5 hrs per session)
Short Workshops (1-2 hrs total)
More information about each of these workshops is available below.
“Elders serve as conduits between the divine realm and the mundane world, making the abstract truths of spirituality accessible to the community by embodying them in their everyday behavior.”
― Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, From Age-Ing to Sage-Ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older
About the Facilitator
Rev. Paulette Robinson, PhD completes her Saging Leader Certification in October with Sage-ing International, an international organization helping those over 50 discover what is next in their lives. She is an experienced adult education facilitator crafting workshops and courses for university students, government leaders and spiritual groups for more than 20 years.
Awakening the Sage Within (ASW)
Duration: 6 hr program
The ASW program introduces sage-ing concepts including life review, forgiveness work and issues surrounding our mortality. It explores feelings about aging and the role of spiritual development in our later years. Finally, the course begins to develop a personalized plan for a person’s elder years, including serving others and leaving a legacy.
This program can be offered in several formats:
one 6-hour day with a lunch break,
two 3-hour classes,
two 3 -hour sessions, and
six 1-hour sessions.
Stepping Across the Threshold to Eldering
Duration: 8 session series, 2 hrs per session
Aging is a developmental stage as powerful as the stages of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Moving from one stage to another is an expansion of awareness and being in the world. In our culture, the images of aging often keep us frozen in an adult stage of development while our bodies are clearly aging.
The program will include a series of eight- 1 ½ hour workshop sessions using Zoom. Sessions will be recorded for those who can’t attend a session. The workshops are highly interactive and engaging. The topics will explore the processes and techniques that move us with meaning into the developmental stage of aging and living fully as an elder.
This program can be packaged into single or grouped together in 3 and 4 session programs.
Weekly topics in this program include:
Reframing Images of Aging
Qualities of a Wise Elder
Aging as a Spiritual Journey
Harvesting Life’s Wisdom
The Gift of Forgiveness
Embracing Grief
Facing Our Mortality
Service and Legacy
Leaving a Legacy
Duration: 3 session series, 1.5 hrs per session
Leaving a Legacy writing series offers a simple way for participants to pass on a legacy of stories, momentos (stuff), and resources.
Session 1: Legacy Memories is a session that focuses on the stories and lessons that each of us want to pass along to family, friends and those we mentor. The session teaches a way to write a short 1-2 page legacy letter that gives a context and a value or lesson learned from the memory.
Session 2: Momentos Legacy is a session that focuses on those momentos that we want to pass along to those who are dear to us. The session teaches participants a way to give context and meaning to those the things we want to pass along to family or friends.
Session 3: Resource Legacy is a session that focuses on the monetary resources we want to pass along to family, friends or organizations. The session teaches participants a way to apportion and give context to those we bequeath our money and resources.
These sessions are 1.5 hours long they can be done in a one-day 5 hour workshop, individual 1.5 workshops or 3-1.5 hour workshops.
Short Workshop Options
Duration: 1-2 hours each
A number of short workshop options are listed below. Programs and instructional workshops can be customized based on the interests of each group. The topics can be offered in formats of 1, 1.5 and 2 hr sessions. They can also be combined.
Introduction to Sage-ing: A New View of Aging
Elder Consciousness
Embracing the Crone
Aging as a Spiritual Practice
Weaving Creativity into Elder Life
Life Review and Life Harvest
Recontectualizing the Past
The Gift of Forgiveness and Letting Go
Elders as Healers of the World
Mortality
A Personal Elder Philosophy
Mentoring and Intergenerational Dialogue
Wisdom Leadership
The Emerging Elder
Elder Blessing, Rites, Rituals, and Celebrations