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Rabbi Chaya Gusfield

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, Jewish Renewal, rabbi, spiritual director, chaplain

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For Chaplains

NEW GROUP! Sign up by end of February.

Devotional Listening Group Forming for Chaplains and Spiritual Directors

Chaplains and Spiritual Directors are immersed in the spiritual and physical lives of people often during very challenging times.  We hold a lot, give a lot, and care a lot.  We need a place to take a breath, listen to the still small voice, find meaning in our lives and work, and reconnect to the Sacred.  In a small group we have the opportunity to be heard by others and to offer devotional listening to one another in a reflective and creative setting. 

I am starting a monthly group for spiritual accompaniment through devotional listening to self/the Sacred/and one another, writing, and sharing. Limited to five participants. People of all traditions welcome.

Details: Begins the last Thursday of the month starting in March. (4 months, with the option to continue. If not all five want to continue, the group may choose to open up to new members.)

4 -6 p.m. pst. On Zoom.

Contact R. Chaya Gusfield for fee arrangements and to see if this group is a good match for you.  For more information: cgusfield@gmail.com, www.rabbichayagusfield.com. 

Who is Rabbi Chaya? After becoming a Spiritual Director in 2001 I was ordained as a rabbi in the ALEPH Rabbinical program in 2006. In addition to rabbinical work and spiritual direction work, I am a Board Certified Chaplain and worked as a Jewish hospital chaplain and then interfaith Palliative Care hospital chaplain for many years.  Please read my piece on being a Spiritual midwife. https://rabbichayagusfield.com/spiritual-direction/

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Other ways to engage with the work:

After I left Kaiser as a Palliative Care Chaplain in November of 2020, I began serving hospice chaplain, social work and bereavement teams all over the United States.  I offer creative expression and team building workshops that involve an opportunity for those serving patients a place to rejuvenate, process their work, be witnessed, and support their colleagues in new ways.  I am also available to work with CPE students.

My personal experience with death and dying, mental health, cancer, and aging issues, as well as my experience serving as a spiritual leader, spiritual director, and chaplain has given me great respect for the importance of tending to the broken heart as life-giving.

Let us continue to ask, what heartache needs tending to today?

From my Heart collection

How spiritual and palliative care professionals can engage with my work:

Visit Chaya’s Gallery here and see how I use my art images with those I work with.

Visit Chaya’s Garden here and read my blog posts, many very relevant to chaplain work. Consider subscribing to receive entries as they are posted.

For individual chaplains, I am available for group and one-on-one Spiritual Accompaniment (also called Spiritual Direction).

For team managers and directors, consider offering your team the gift of a one or two hour nurturing workshop to rejuvenate, process their work, be witnessed through devotional listening, and support their colleagues in creative ways. (Contact me for references and to sign up for my mailing list to receive my periodic newsletter.)  

Presentations and participatory workshops are available on a variety of topics including:

  • Important things to know about serving Jewish patients.
  • How to encourage religious diversity conversations and group visioning within chaplain teams.
  • Assessing patients through writing their prayers with them.
  • Using writing and art as ways teams and staff can create a sustainable work environment.
  • Participatory workshops on how to use authentic, deep, universal prayer language when working with the spiritual but not religious patient and family.

Professional Chaplain credentials: I have been a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains since 2014 and completed my Clinical Pastoral Education residency in 2013 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley/Oakland.   After completing my residency, I worked at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (in three campuses) and at Oakland Kaiser Hospital (two campuses).  I have worked as a hospital chaplain in several capacities.  I have worked as a Jewish chaplain, an interfaith chaplain and a Palliative Care Chaplain on an interdisciplinary team.   As a Spiritual Director and as a rabbi, I found hospital chaplaincy extremely rewarding. I also really enjoyed teaching chaplain students in a variety of topics including serving Jewish patients to offering universal prayer and creative expression to help process the work.

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Connect With Chaya’s Garden

Chaya’s Garden (my blog) contains many writings that would be of interest to chaplains, for their own sustenance as well as for those of their patients, families and staff that they serve. See them here.

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” ‘Go in peace, go in kindness, go in love, go in faith…’ Were these words calming or upsetting to her? I found them calming and the staff did, but I wasn’t sure if she did.  She couldn’t tell me.  I listened deeply to her face, her tears, my intuition. Because I wasn’t sure, I shifted.  I sang only the sweet melody and then another and another…”

– Excerpt from “Showing Up” in Chaya’s Garden

What People Are Saying

"I cannot recommend Rabbi Chaya highly enough to those of us who go to the bedside at the end of life. As a hospice chaplain and in my role in hospice leadership, I have experienced Chaya to be uniquely gifted in her ability to draw us in and take us more deeply into the interior movements that activate our calling to this work. Never has self-awareness and self-care been more important in palliative and hospice care - Chaya’s work with us is both enlightening and sustaining. I would lovingly recommend her to the entire interdisciplinary team.”

- Michael Milward
CEO, California Hospice Network Strategic Advisor, National Partnership for Hospice and Healthcare Innovation
"Rabbi Chaya brings an engaging and interactive teaching style that promotes spiritual curiosity and reflection.  Her knowledge and passion about Jewish rituals and contemplative spirituality shines through in her workshops and spiritual care. She brings extensive training and experience as an interfaith hospital chaplain, spiritual director, and ritual leader & community educator."

—Rev. Carrie Buckner
M.Div., BCC, ACPE Certified Educator. Director, Spiritual Care Services Kaiser Permanente Greater Southern Alameda Area (GSAA)
"Chaya brought together our team of social workers and chaplain for a writing exercise that supported us emotionally and spiritually. As hospice providers, we don’t always have time to pause and explore our own emotions that arise in this work. We learned about how to navigate and listen to whatever was internally brought forward and to reflect as a team on our collective experience. I would highly recommend that every team goes through this exercise."

- Meredith Sinel
LICSW and Chaplain, HopeHospice, Rhode Island

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