Join us for a look into the world of chronic illness from the personal trauma and disempowerment of being a patient to the systemic inequities, shadows, and complications of the health care system. We’ll consider how the integral models and an integral consciousness can radically alter the experience of illness and also discover how illness can be a path to personal and spiritual growth.

We’ll read The Koan of Chronic Illness: An Integral Approach, meeting every two weeks at 11 PT beginning April 26th. Lynn Fuentes, the author, will facilitate a discussion of the issues raised in the book around:

1. the way in which an integral approach can be helpful in living with a chronic illness effects including disempowerment, trauma, and relationship changes.
2. the life-enhancing possibility of treating illness as a path for personal and spiritual growth.
3. the larger social context of healthcare and chronic illness.

Session dates:

1. April 26: Preface and Chapter 1: Introduction
2. May 10: Chapters 2, 3, and 4: Definitions, collective shadow, integral map overview
3. May 24: Chapters 5 and 6: The disempowerment of illness
4. June 7: Chapters 7 and 8: Captaining the ship
5. June 21: Chapters 9, 10, 11: Relationships, communication, boundaries, and the quadrants
6. July 5: Chapters 12, 13, 14: Different worldviews around illness
7. July 19: Chapters 15, 16: Illness as a personal growth path
8. August 2: Chapters 17, 18: Illness as a spiritual path
9. August 16: Chapter 19: Creating a meaningful life with illness
10. August 30: Chapter 20 and 21: New ways to think about managing illness as a collective