Caring for the Caretaker
Age Range
40-60
ISSUES
Caretaker anxiety and chronic hypervigilance, compassion fatigue and burnout, emotional overwhelm, acute panic, identity loss outside of the caretaker role, relational strain with partners and other children, sleep deprivation, nutritional neglect, social withdrawal and isolation, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, medical decision fatigue, and the particular psychological weight of guilt that accompanies parental caretaking.
PAIN POINTS
- Feeling like nothing you do is ever enough, regardless of how much you give
- Not knowing what to say, saying nothing and then feeling guilty for not saying anything
- Feeling helpless watching someone you love suffer
- Feeling like you are not allowed to fall apart, because they need you to hold it together
- Not knowing how to support a young adult who processes this differently- who may be closed off, or pushing you away exactly when you most want to be close
- Lying awake running through every possible outcome, unable to turn your brain off, exhausted but unable to rest
BENEFIT STATEMENT
By taking this course, you will know how to actually show up for someone going through cancer treatment — what to say, what not to say, and how to be present in a way that helps rather than hurts. You will stop feeling so helpless and start feeling capable. You will understand why you are exhausted, why the guilt is so heavy, and what to do about both. And you will learn that taking care of yourself is not selfish — it is the only way you can sustain what this person needs from you for however
long the road ahead turns out to be.
OVERVIEW
Nobody told you there would be a role like this. You thought you knew how to love someone through hard things. Then the diagnosis came and everything you thought you knew stopped being enough. You are running on no sleep and no answers. You are holding your face together in the hospital and falling apart in the parking garage. You are googling things at midnight that you are terrified to find the answers to. You are watching someone you would do anything for go through something you cannot take away — and the helplessness of that is its own kind of suffering that no one around
you quite understands. Caring for the Caretaker is for the person holding everything together on the outside of the treatment room. It gives you the understanding and the tools to keep showing up — not just for them, but for yourself.
Because the road ahead is long. And you cannot walk it on empty.
In alignment with our value of accessibility, we don’t ever want finances to be a barrier to learning regulation. If you are in need of financial assistance to access our courses, reach out to us by filling out this our form.