Application Instructions

2024-2025 Class is complete

Application process is complete. Check back in March of 2025 for information on our next session.

Classes begin September 28, 2024 and end June 21, 2025.

Tuition:

Full Program with 2 in-person meetings, 6 day-long virtual meetings and one 3-day retreat $975

Virtual only program with 6 half-day topic-specific meetings $425

Retreat-only program – 3-day retreat spaces may be available weekend of  February 28, 2025. Please email to be included on waitlist for this option.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
(for sending via postal mail or email attachment)

Download the application form in the sidebar at right.

Please have the following information ready to complete the form:

  • Your Full Name
  • Mailing address
  • Phone number(s) where you can most easily be reached
  • E-mail address (indicate preference if more than one)
  • Name of person from whom you have asked for a letter of reference
  • Whether you are requesting financial aid and a brief description of the personal or family circumstances under which you require financial assistance to take the program.
  • How you heard about the program
  • Whether you are currently affiliated with an organization or facility at which you are or will be doing your companioning and, if so, the name of that organization or facility. If you have no such affiliation please indicate if you would like assistance in identifying potential companioning opportunities.

Please include an essay, no longer than two pages, telling us about yourself in relation to the Program, using the following reflection questions as a guide for the content of your essay. Include any other information you deem relevant.

  • What changes, nudges, invitations do you notice in your life right now that seem to relate to your consideration of this Program?
  • What about the Program particularly attracts you?
  • What hesitations do you feel about participating in the Program?
  • Given your past life experience and knowledge of yourself, what can you tell us about your willingness and capacity to be in a learning, dialogic community with others of different experiences and faith traditions?
  • Are you currently, or have you recently experienced any unattended issues of upheaval, loss, or turmoil in your life that might affect your full participation in the Program?
  • Are there any other factors that might affect your participation in the Program, e.g. ongoing health issues, handicap accessibility, needing help with transportation, planned travel, etc.?
  • Given your life as much as you can envision it for the next year, including your present commitments, can you make a commitment to complete the requirements of the Program? Please review the list of meeting dates for the location to which you are applying to be certain you can attend all scheduled meetings.

Please send a Recommendation Form to a person of your choosing who can send to us directly a letter of recommendation about you by August 25, 2024. You may download at right and either print or email them a copy of the form. Please be sure your name is on the form as applicant.

We prefer that you email your application materials electronically to: leeanneblank@gmail.com. Alternately you may send your application hard-copy (cover sheet, essay, and any other relevant information) by U.S. Postal mail to:

Companioning the Dying: Opening Fully to Living
c/o/ Lee Anne Blank, 617 Edmonston Drive, Rockville, MD 20851

Upon receipt of your application materials and a reference letter, we will respond in a timely fashion so that you can plan accordingly.

Please keep in mind that if finances are an obstacle for you, some limited scholarship aid is available based on need.  Flexible tuition payment plans may also be available based on need. Scholarship aid or alternate payment plans should be requested at the time of submitting your application. You will be informed of the amount of any financial assistance approved with your letter of acceptance into the program.

Upon acceptance into the Program, tuition will be due by start of first session.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we will be happy to respond.

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DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS

Application Form

Recommendation Form

TUITION PAYMENTS (Pay only after acceptance letter received)

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HOW YOU LOVED ME

A Poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

That without a word you sat with me in grief, me wounded and alone, robbed beyond grasping, you silent and present, beyond grasping— this was love.

That you did not save me but accompanied me,

that when I fell apart, confident in the whole you did not try to glue back the pieces,

that you did not protect me from my pain, my heart’s crucial kneading, did not root around in the ashes looking for blame,

that you resisted the temptation of explanation, the ruse of a plan, some clever dramatic device as if the click of some little metal piece into place could dismiss what was happening in my heart,

that you set me no timetable, that you planted no fence beyond the strong horse of my anguish,

that you withheld your dexterous knowhow, so readily shouldered the weight, accepted the nails of powerlessness, dared the nothingness empty-handed,

that you were still there as the petals fell, patient for the rolling away of the stone—

this is how you loved me, helpless, raw and given.

This is how you love me still, since love that has passed through death will never die again.