Today we’d like to introduce you to Christin Ament
Hi Christin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My background is as a nurse practitioner specializing in palliative care, prior to this I was in the ICU at Mayo Clinic. Suffice it to say, I saw a lot of death. Some good, but many more that lacked the reverence that I thought it deserved. Reimagining end-of-life became a passion of mine as did educating my community on end-of-life topics through events like the Death Cafe. I have also had the opportunity to travel the globe learning healing traditions at their place of origin. In my practice, I sought to blend the mind, the body, our ecosystems, and etc. In a conventional setting, I found this was difficult and often felt like the black sheep, but I knew there had to more to the experience in the medical setting. It was during this time that I met a woman named Deb Fee who had a vision to create a healing nature center. We became instant friends. After many conversations together, Deb asked if I would be willing to bring the vision of transforming the way end-of-life care was done at her healing nature center. The Bardo began here.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have been a number of struggles and challenges along the way. First and foremost, my background is in bodies & health and not strategic plans. There were many vision changes as I found my voice. There were interpersonal & personal challenges, lack of clarity, funding, turnover, and all the other things that accompany a person deviating from their comfort zone into the mystery. Fortunately I had many wonderful teachers along the way. Our biggest challenge remains convincing city council & the public to support innovative approaches to end-of-life. Because this has not been done before, there is a lack of understading that accompanies fear of the unknown. I have had to meet with the department of health, the department of human services, the county, and etc. to get approval as well when creating something that hasn’t yet been done in MN and deciding whether or not it needs a license. All of these obstacles, as they say, are the way. With these obstacles come clarity and direction, which is why we do this work anyways.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Nurse practitioner, specializing in Palliative medicine & Integrative Medicine.
Known for death and dying, I have many community engagements that narrow the gap in understanding of end-of-life as well as build community around the very delicate nature of our mortality. Some examples include: Twin Cities Death Cafe, Grief Tea Ceremonies at Lakewood Cemetery, guest lecturer at UMN, invited to host a retreat on burial practices and death meditation in Hong Kong, speaker at MNHPC conference, piloted the first integrative medicine program at a local hospital for oncology, palliative, and hospice patients, and more. I continue to dedicate my work to narrowing the chasm between the current medicalized landscape of end-of-life care and the way in which we can be supporting families and those in their final days in a more reverent and fulfilled way.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My husband & friends would say deep well of compassion balanced with tenacity. I also feel that thinking outside of the box is something that benefits me. I typically don’t accept status quo as the only way.
I am really driven AND I am a forever learner. I never think that I have mastered anything, because frankly I haven’t. They say the only masters are the ones who are dead.
Also, I have a unique blend of medical professional, business degree, AND is someone who is deeply rooted in traditional healing and ritual practices so I have the opportunity to speak a variety of “languages” based on my audience.
Pricing:
- I dont know what this questions is asking
- We are a non-proft. We operate largely on donation for sustainability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebardo.com
- Instagram: thebardo.mn
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/thebardo.mn
