Host a Speaking Engagement

Led by one of our experienced Soul Injury® speakers, a speaking engagement is a custom-designed presentation for you and your audience. View the list of speaking topics below for inspiration and connect with us to talk about hosting your custom event, available either in-person or virtually.

Virtual and In-Person Forums Available:

  • SINGULAR PRESENTATIONS
  • WORKSHOPS
  • SEMINARS
  • 1-2 DAY INTENSIVES

Speaking Topics

Helplessness, Creative Cocooning, and the Power of “And”

The butterfly is commonly used as a symbol of transformation.  When faced with making a needed change, most of us want to get straight to the butterfly-the beautiful happy ending.

Speaking Topics

Helplessness, Creative Cocooning, and the Power of “And”

The butterfly is commonly used as a symbol of transformation.  When faced with making a needed change, most of us want to get straight to the butterfly-the beautiful happy ending.  We want to skip the in-between stage: the silent, dark, messy cocoon.  Anthropological literature references this kind of transformation, describing the “in between” stage as “liminality”- the space between here and there, the time between “what was” and “what’s next?” It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing.  Times of transition are fraught with feelings of helplessness-a feeling that most people will do anything to avoid.  Some philosophers point out that the secret to successfully navigating transitions is to understand the power of “and” along with the oppression of “or.”

Responding to Soul Injury: Self-Help Tools for Hope and Healing

Soul Injury is a wound right in our midst, but until recently there hasn't been a name for it.

Speaking Topics

Responding to Soul Injury: Self-Help Tools for Hope and Healing

Soul Injury is a wound right in our midst, but until recently there hasn’t been a name for it.  Now, we can identify it and do something about it.  This experiential presentation by Opus Peace provides you with self-help tools to help you personally and professionally move from:

  • deadening your loss and hurt to mourning your pain
  • hiding your guilt to learning how to forgive yourself and others
  • being ashamed of not being “good enough” to releasing fears of who you are and who you are not
  • numbing helplessness by trying to control things you can’t control to feeling your helplessness in uncontrollable situations

Discover an unburdening process designed to help you uncover your human BE-ingness!

Aging & Chronic Illness: Redeeming the Destiny We Were Born to Fulfill

American culture overvalues youthfulness and undervalues or completely dismisses the value of aging. Acute illness is viewed compassionately and treated aggressively; chronic illness receives less attention, support, and sympathy.

Speaking Topics

Aging & Chronic Illness: Redeeming the Destiny We Were Born to Fulfill

American culture overvalues youthfulness and undervalues or completely dismisses the value of aging. Acute illness is viewed compassionately and treated aggressively; chronic illness receives less attention, support, and sympathy.

As members of our death-denying, youth-inspired society, we unconsciously adopt these values for ourselves. Without even realizing it, we cut ourselves off from our inner elder who holds the wisdom that we secretly long for. It is never too late or too early to make the acquaintance of the Wise Elder archetype that awaits redemption. Nor is it too late to help patients develop an “exit strategy” by providing them with a prognosis. Provocative videos and thought-stimulating questions to help people openly address serious healthcare dilemmas. This presentation will take you into your depths to discover ways you can access the interior Sage awaiting your acquaintance.

Spiritual Care and Meaning: The Paradoxical Dimension

Would you like a coupon that you can cash in to redeem your suffering? Would you be surprised that the coupon would not erase your suffering, but rather draw you into it so you could discover its meaning?

Speaking Topics

Spiritual Care and Meaning: The Paradoxical Dimension

Would you like a coupon that you can cash in to redeem your suffering? Would you be surprised that the coupon would not erase your suffering, but rather draw you into it so you could discover its meaning?

This presentation collaborates with non-religious based authors and philosophers such as Frankl, Nouwen, and Peck to develop a map for successful suffering. This map opens new vistas for healthcare providers as they interact with their patients. Utilizing her experience of hospice in India, Deborah will also highlight the power of “and” along with the oppression of “or,” facilitating integration of experience without compartmentalization so you can live in the present moment.

Vietnam Veterans: Untold Stories at the End of Life

As of the year 2015, there are more Vietnam veterans dying than World War II or Korean veterans. Vietnam veterans face unique issues at the end of life.

Speaking Topics

Vietnam Veterans: Untold Stories at the End of Life

As of 2015, there are more Vietnam veterans dying than World War II or Korean veterans. Vietnam veterans face unique issues at the end of life.

Scorned and vilified by the American public when they returned from combat, Vietnam Vetrans’ stories often got shoved into unconsciousness only to reemerge as they age and near the end of their lives. As a result, Vietnam veterans do not trust easily. Learning how to earn their trust is both essential and tricky. This presentation will provide you with tools to create a safe emotional environment for our Vietnam veterans so that they can share their stories, heal, and “come home” at last! You will also learn about the value of ceremonies to heal the unmourned loss and unforgiven guilt that sometimes lingers in war’s aftermath.

Wounded Warriors: Their Last Battle

Many military experiences impact peaceful dying for veterans – even though their death might not occur until decades later.

Speaking Topics

Wounded Warriors: Their Last Battle

Many military experiences impact peaceful dying for veterans – even though their death might not occur until decades later.

The stoic military culture, combat training, and war itself can change a veteran in fundamental ways; their families may also be affected. Emotional, spiritual, social, and moral injuries impact veterans throughout their lifetime, especially as they face death. You will learn about the unique needs of veterans as they age and face the end of their lives, the impact of the military experience on families, and tools for effective ways to respond to veterans’ needs, and the Soul Injury they sometimes sustain. Prepare yourself to learn about “warrior wisdom” that emerges at the end of life.

Dying Healed: A Shared Quest for Wholeness

This presentation provides information and tools to Healthcare Providers about how to initiate conversations about end-of-life care with patients and their families so end-of-life strategies can be developed.

Speaking Topics

Dying Healed: A Shared Quest for Wholeness

This presentation provides information and tools to Healthcare Providers about how to initiate conversations about end-of-life care with patients and their families so end-of-life strategies can be developed.

Provocative videos and thought-stimulating questions help clinicians craft therapeutic dialogue that openly addresses healthcare dilemmas with patients and their families.

Forgiveness: Re-Vitalizing the Wounded Soul

If peace on earth begins with me, then how do I make peace with everyone and everything causing me unrest? Have I ever considered that anger could be a gift, guiding me into the forgiveness process?

Speaking Topics

Forgiveness: Re-Vitalizing the Wounded Soul

If peace on earth begins with me, then how do I make peace with everyone and everything causing me unrest? Have I ever considered that anger could be a gift, guiding me into the forgiveness process?

This provocative presentation will challenge your concepts about the forgiveness process. You will learn about the essential steps to facilitate forgiveness, common mistakes that are made that interfere with forgiveness, pseudo-forgiveness, as well as the relationship between irrational guilt and helplessness. Tools to promote healing will be addressed and forgiveness exercises provided, including self-reflection, therapeutic letter writing, and integrative rituals.

Liberating Unmourned Loss/Hurt

There are numerous programs on loss and grief. There are few programs, however, on FEAR of loss and FEAR of emotional pain.

Speaking Topics

Liberating Unmourned Loss/Hurt

There are numerous programs on loss and grief. There are few programs, however, on FEAR of loss and FEAR of emotional pain.

FEAR of loss perpetuates numbing behaviors that subtly and not-so-subtly rob people of their vitality. Paradoxically, learning how to connect with the part of self carrying loss, pain, disappointment, and failure liberates resiliency. This requires resisting the urge to numb emotional pain and learning how to listen to this part of self without fear. This applies to personal and professional caregivers who work in burn-out-rich environments. Ongoing, unrelenting, caregiving can wear a person down by slowly and gradually exerting PTSD-like effects on the nervous system. Well-designed caregiver ceremonies can effectively respond to the losses that healthcare providers sustain.

PTSD AND TRAUMA INTEGRATION

Research now shows that PTSD is in the head – the traumatized brain is remarkably different than it was prior to the trauma.

Speaking Topics

PTSD AND TRAUMA INTEGRATION

Research now shows that PTSD is in the head – the traumatized brain is remarkably different than it was prior to the trauma.

Attention, perception, and memory are radically altered in the fear-based brain. Recovery measures that focus on re-setting the emotional brain to respond appropriately to danger and to recover its capacity to experience safety and relaxation have been found to be the most effective. Resetting the brain includes developing self-compassion, awakening parts of the body where memories are stored, transforming the brain by installing new “software,” and cultivating honesty, courage, and humility to do the work of recovery. Well-designed ceremonies that acknowledge the losses and allows people to re-visit the distress without re-living it helps integrate acute and chronic stress and trauma.

Soul Injury: A Wound to Your Sense of BE-ing

Speaking Topics

Soul Injury: A Wound to Your Sense of BE-ing

Have there been times when you forgot who you really were, started putting on facades to try to become someone else, or realized you were living a counterfeit life that is not meant for you? That is often how a Soul Injury is acquired.  A Soul Injury is a wound that separates you from your real self.  Soul Injuries are caused by unmourned loss/hurt, unforgiven guilt/shame, and fear of helplessness and loss of control.  These barriers insidiously disconnect you from the energy of your deepest self, robbing you of the essence of your BE-ing.  The Soul Injury concept originated in an unusual way.  A group of VA hospice nurses who cared for 10,000 dying Veterans witnessed “warrior wisdom” emerge from the depths of consciousness, revealing a process for attaining personal peace.  Opus Peace, a non-profit organization, now brings those lessons to YOU!

Opus Peace Leaders

Read more about our team of Opus Peace Speakers. Contact us to host an event and we will match you with one of these compelling presenters.

FOUNDER

Deborah Grassman

NP St. Petersburg, Florida

Deborah is the Founder of Opus Peace. She is a contributing author for three textbooks, has 22 published articles, there are three documentary films featuring her work, and she has two published books. She has collaborated with national, state, and local organizations to advance the concepts of Soul Injury and Veterans’ unique needs at the end of life. In 1998, her team initiated “pinning ceremonies” to honor veterans—a practice that was adopted by the We Honor-Veteran Partnership and is now standard practice in most hospices.

Deborah and her team are most well known for identifying and addressing Soul Injury—a wound to a person’s sense of BE-ing.

BOARD PRESIDENT

Angie Snyder

RN, MSN, MHA Bally, Pennsylvania

Angie is the President of Opus Peace. “Opus Peace has provided me with the language and the self-help tools to understand and teach others about Soul Injury®. I am no longer afraid of who I am and who I am not. This has empowered me to live a more peaceful life personally and professionally.”

Leann Thrapp

RN, MA, CHPCA

Leann was the featured presenter at the Arizona Geriatrics Society annual conference. Her signature presentation, “Creative Cocooning,” has been presented with acclaim at numerous professional conferences. Leann is INELDA trained End of Life Doula, “Learning how to re-own, re-home, and re-vitalize pieces of myself and help others do so as well has been invaluable to me personally and professionally.”