Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go

A hospital chaplain reflects on grief and loss, mindfulness and healing, in this ＂beautifully written＂ meditation on the spiritual, emotional, and philosophical implications of end-of-life care (Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindfulness on the Go)

As a hospital chaplain, Amy Wright Glenn has been present with those suffering from suicide, trauma, disease, and unforeseen accidents and has been witness to the intense grief and powerful insights that so often accompany loss. She weaves together memoir, philosophical inquiry, and cutting-edge research on death/dying to chronicle how we, as individuals and as a culture, handle everything from grief to mortality.

Glenn is also a professional birth doula with a deep and committed mindfulness practice who has thought deeply about the significance of human love and loss. She asks us to embrace the task of being present with what is--through courageous and mindful expressions of compassionate presence--and helps us to accept the fact of our own mortality on a visceral and emotional level, not simply as an intellectual abstraction.

Holding Space concludes by integrating key insights drawn from working directly with the dying into a moving and compelling meditation on the healing power of ＂holding space＂ for all involved in caring for the dying, a healing sorely needed in our culture at this time.

Amy Wright Glenn earned her MA in Religion and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught in the Religion and Philosophy Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey for over a decade earning the Dunbar Abston Jr. Chair for Teaching Excellence. Glenn is a Kripalu Yoga teacher, a DONA certified birth doula, a hospital chaplain, and founder of the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. She is also a contributor to PhillyVoice. Glenn provides online and in-person trainings to birth and mental health professionals regarding pregnancy loss. Her first book, Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula, was published in 2013. To learn more: www.birthbreathanddeath.com