Talks, Seminars, Webinars, and Workshops
Seminars, presentations, and workshops are available virtually and, by arrangement, in person in the 90720 area and nearby communities in Southern California, as well as in the 59860 area and nearby communities in Northwest Montana.
Workshops include opportunities for personal reflection and, when appropriate, small-group discussion. I am also happy to discuss custom presentations tailored to your organization or group on select topics.
In addition to support group offerings, I offer these accessible talks on grief, loss, resilience, spirituality, meaning and suffering, and chronic pain and illness for organizations, healthcare professionals, faith communities, and other groups.
For inquiries and scheduling, please contact me at JudyFoy2023@gmail.com.
Grief, Loss & Resilience
These talks offer practical, compassionate education about grief and loss. They are designed for a broad workplace audience and do not assume a particular religious or spiritual perspective.
Different Types of Grief and Why Labels Might Matter
Grief is not limited to the death of someone we love. We can grieve the loss of a relationship, health, identity, home, hopes, or a way of life—and different kinds of loss can affect us in different ways.
Helping Someone Who is Grieving and Why Not To Worry About What To Say
When someone we care about is grieving, we may worry about saying the wrong thing or making their pain worse. Supporting someone who is grieving is less about finding the perfect words than about being willing to be present.
Why “Special Days” are Hard and How to Help Yourself
Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other meaningful dates can bring grief to the surface, sometimes long after a loss has occurred. This talk explores why these days can be challenging and how we can prepare for and care for ourselves through them.
7 Myths About Grieving
We often hear familiar ideas about how grief is supposed to work. Many of these beliefs can leave grieving people feeling confused or as though they are doing grief wrong. This talk examines seven common myths and replaces them with a more compassionate and realistic understanding of how grief unfolds.
Why Pandemic Grief Was Especially Hard and What We Can Learn From It
The losses of the pandemic went far beyond the deaths of those who died from COVID-19. Isolation, disrupted rituals, missed milestones, and losses that could not be properly acknowledged or mourned created a distinctive experience of grief. This talk explores what we can learn from that experience.
Spiritual Beliefs and Grief
Grief can raise questions about meaning, mortality, and what we believe. This talk explores the ways spiritual beliefs can shape the experience of grief, including the comfort they may provide as well as the questions and doubts that loss can bring.
When We Couldn't Say Goodbye: Finding a Path Through Sudden and Traumatic Loss
When death comes suddenly—through an accident, heart attack, overdose, suicide, sudden illness, murder, or another unexpected circumstance—the shock can make grief especially complicated. This talk explores the unique challenges of sudden loss and compassionate ways to begin finding a path forward.
Everything I Have Been Through Has Prepared Me for This Moment
We don't have to believe that everything happens for a reason to recognize that our experiences can shape who we become. This talk explores how the difficult and joyful experiences of our lives can give us strengths, wisdom, perspective, and compassion that we can bring to the present moment.
Chronic Pain and Illness
The Brain in Pain: An introduction to understanding chronic pain
Chronic pain changes more than the body—it changes the brain. This accessible introduction explores what happens in the nervous system when pain persists, why pain can continue even after an injury has healed, and how stress, attention, emotion, sleep, and the environment can influence the experience of pain. Understanding the brain in pain can help replace fear and self-blame with greater compassion, curiosity, and practical tools for living with chronic pain.
The Brain in Pain: A Series for Understanding pain, the nervous system, and the person living with it
A series of talks exploring the neuroscience and lived experience of persistent pain. Topics include how chronic pain changes the brain; the relationship between pain, stress, and the autonomic nervous system; the role of attention, expectation, and emotion; pacing and the limits of “pushing through”; sleep and pain; and developing a more compassionate relationship with a body that hurts. The goal is to understand the remarkably complex brain-body system through which pain is experienced.
Living with an Unreliable Body. Finding a way forward when your body no longer behaves as expected
Chronic illness can disrupt far more than physical health. Plans become uncertain, independence may change, and activities once taken for granted can require careful calculation. This talk explores the psychological and spiritual challenges of living with an unpredictable body—including grief, identity, frustration, loss of control, and the temptation to measure our worth by what we can accomplish. It offers a different way of thinking about adaptation: not giving up, but learning to live meaningfully within what is actually possible.
When Your Body Says “No”. Pacing, limits, and the courage to stop fighting yourself
For many people with chronic illness, learning when to stop is harder than learning how to keep going. This talk explores the difference between giving up and responding wisely to limits, and between avoidance and genuine pacing. Drawing from psychology, pain science, and lived experience, we consider how listening to the body can become an act of self-respect rather than defeat.
The Grief of the Life You Expected. Chronic illness, loss, and discovering a different way to live
Chronic illness often involves a form of grief that is difficult for others to see: grieving health, abilities, relationships, work, spontaneity, independence, and the future we imagined. This talk acknowledges those losses without suggesting that people must simply “accept” them and move on. It explores how grief can coexist with meaning, connection, hope, and even unexpected forms of growth.
Beyond “Why Me?” Living with suffering when there are no satisfying answers
Chronic pain and illness inevitably raise questions that medicine cannot always answer: Why is this happening? Why me? How long will this last? What am I supposed to do with this? Rather than offering simplistic answers, this talk explores how we might live with unanswered questions while remaining connected to meaning, relationship, hope, and—when appropriate—faith. The emphasis is on how we respond to suffering, rather than pretending we can explain it.
The Lens of Love. Seeing yourself differently when you live with pain or illness
The way we look at ourselves can change dramatically when our bodies become sources of limitation and pain. This talk adapts the Lens of Love specifically for people who are suffering, asking: What happens when we stop seeing ourselves primarily through the lens of productivity, independence, appearance, or what we can no longer do? Through the lens of love, the person remains more than the illness—and suffering does not have the final word about who we are.
Suffering Does Not Have to Be Meaningless. Finding meaning without romanticizing pain
Pain is not automatically transformative. Illness does not necessarily make us stronger, wiser, or better people. Yet suffering can sometimes become a place where something new is revealed—about ourselves, other people, what matters, and, for people of faith, about God's presence and love. This talk explores the difference between suffering itself and what can happen through our response to it including surrender, compassion, discernment, and the stripping away of what no longer serves us.
Empowered Relief: A 2-hour evidence-based pain management class
Held virtually and in person at select locations, Empowered Relief is a 2-hour evidence-based pain management class developed by a Stanford pain specialist. Participants learn practical skills for managing pain and reducing its impact on daily life. For information and registration, email Judyfoy2023@gmail.com.
Spirituality, Meaning & Suffering
These talks explore the spiritual dimensions of human experience and are particularly suited to organizations and audiences interested in questions of faith, meaning, presence, suffering, and compassion. Talks can be adapted for Christian audiences or presented more broadly around spirituality and meaning.
Sacred Presence: Discovering God in the Present Moment
What does it mean to become present to God—and to discover that God is already present to us? Drawing on the lives of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, this talk explores presence as a contemplative way of living and invites participants to discover God in silence, suffering, grief, ordinary moments, and the places where we least expect to find God.
Through the Lens of Love: Encountering the Suffering of Others
Those who care for the health, mental health, and spiritual well-being of others are continually invited into the suffering of those they serve. Drawing on Christian spirituality and the wounded-healer tradition, this talk explores how love can transform the way we encounter suffering while helping caregivers remain compassionate, present, grounded, and attentive to their own human limits.
Where is God when the Suffering Does Not End and Healing Does Not Come? What Jesus Really Teaches Us
When suffering persists and healing does not come, it can be difficult to reconcile our experience with what we believe about God. This talk explores what Jesus actually teaches about suffering, healing, faith, and the presence of God when prayers seem unanswered—without offering easy answers or minimizing what cannot be changed.
Spirituality of the Ordinary: Holy Moments in the Day-to-Day
God is not found only in extraordinary spiritual experiences. This talk explores the sacramental richness of ordinary life and invites participants to become more attentive to the sacred moments hidden within the familiar—at home, at work, in relationships, in nature, and in the seemingly insignificant moments of each day.
Everything I Have Been Through Has Prepared Me for This Moment
We don't have to believe that everything happens for a reason—or that God's plan for us was to suffer—to recognize that our experiences can shape who we become. This talk explores how the difficult and joyful experiences of our lives can give us strengths, wisdom, perspective, and compassion that we can bring to the present moment, while inviting us to recognize how God may have been accompanying us all along.
The Truth About Forgiveness: What Jesus Really Teaches about Mercy, Boundaries and Healing
Forgiveness is often misunderstood as forgetting, excusing harmful behavior, or restoring relationships regardless of the circumstances. This talk explores what Jesus teaches about forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, and love—and how forgiveness can coexist with healthy boundaries and become a path toward freedom and healing.