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Support for Caregivers
Mindful support that helps you navigate the challenges of caregiving with compassion and resilience.
Better caregiving through mindfulness
Zen Caregiving Project views the health and well being of caregivers as the foundation of our healthcare system. We know caregiving can be extremely difficult. Drawing on our thirty-five year history of training volunteer caregivers, Mindful Caregiving Education (MCE) was developed to address the underlying emotional challenges faced by family, professional, and clinical caregivers.
Our Education
what is mindful
caregiving education?
Mindful Caregiving Education (MCE) has been developed over Zen Caregiving Project’s 35-year history, drawing on 2,500-year-old contemplative teachings and current contemplative research. This program uses mindfulness-based approaches and tools to help caregivers build emotional resilience and strengthen their wellbeing.
MCE is unique as it combines mindfulness, a focus on emotional support, and exploration of loss in the context of caregiving. A recent study looking at the impact of our eight-hour online course found that it reduces caregivers’ sense of burden and enhances their sense of well-being even in high burden caregiving situations.
Our Programs
Mindful Caregiving Education
Help build emotional resilience, reduce anxiety and reduce burnout.
“I took this course, and it helped me improve my caregiving greatly. Most importantly, I learned how to take care of myself. It was so wonderful to connect with the teacher and fellow caregivers, who understood the stresses and strains of caregiving, the causes of burnout, and how to cope and deal with them. This is real training, not a lecture format with only loads of information.”
Hospice caregiver
Course Participant
Rooted in Experience. Grounded in Care.
Meet our Instructors
Our instructors bring decades of experience in caregiving, mindfulness, and education. Each is deeply grounded in real world practice and dedicated to supporting individuals, families, and care teams with compassion, presence, and skill.
Cassandra Palmer
Course Instructor
Cassandra Palmer facilitates caregiver education programs at the Zen Caregiving Project, drawing from her years of volunteer bedside caregiving and training as an End of Life Doula. She supports mindful caregiver training and open conversations around death and dying.
Mary Doane
Supervising Instructor for Education Programs
Mary Doane serves as Supervising Instructor of Education Programs at the Zen Caregiving Project, where she leads curriculum design and mentors teachers. With deep roots in mindfulness practice and compassion-based education, she helps shape programs that support caregivers at every stage of their journey.
Roy Remer
Executive Director
As Executive Director of the Zen Caregiving Project, Roy Remer brings more than two decades of experience in end-of-life care, education, and compassionate service. His background spans bedside caregiving, nonprofit leadership, compassion training, and guiding transformative wilderness-based rites of passage.
Our Published Work
How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others
Caregiving can ask everything of us: our energy, our attention, and our compassion, often while we are already stretched thin.
Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others was created to meet that reality with support, insight, and practical wisdom.
Zen Caregiving invites you to care for your own well-being with the same tenderness you offer others, because sustaining yourself makes compassionate care possible.
Explore the book and discover practices that support both the caregiver and the cared-for.
