Lend Me Your Ears and I’ll Sing You a Song: Exploring moments of grace and healing in learning to listen to others
Mr. Robert G. Mundle MDiv, STM, ThM
Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 1:30 p.m.
Pope Francis calls us to be better listeners. Instead of asking for our opinions, advice or solutions to problems, he says that oftentimes people are longing to simply be heard, to feel that someone acknowledges their pain, their disappointment, their fear, their anger, their hopes and their dreams. This presentation will illuminate a spirituality of listening revealed in pivotal moments of caring relationships, and demonstrated in music, excerpts from podcasts and research interviews, film clips and insights drawn from a collaborative experimental project between the presenter and one of his chaplain colleagues and partners in pastoral care.
Robert Mundle, MDiv, STM, ThM is a certified Spiritual Care Practitioner with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care and a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. He is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and completed a residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, CT, now part of Yale New Haven Hospital. He has been working as a hospital chaplain in palliative care, complex medical care, and seniors rehab environments for over 15 years.
Robert is the author of “How to Be an Even Better Listener: A Practical Guide for Hospice and Palliative Care Volunteers” published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, and he has published numerous original qualitative research studies in various scholarly health care journals. Robert is a volunteer peer reviewer for Qualitative Health Research, Health Psychology, and other journals.
Robert is a passionate educator whose talks and workshops inspire creative approaches to holistic patient-centered care, and in 2018 he launched Robert Mundle Productions Inc. to develop additional projects (webinars, podcasts, documentaries, and short films) that seek to articulate spiritual health and illuminate the power of human connection. Robert was originally certified with the NACC in 2006 and is very much looking forward to reconnecting with his friends and colleagues in the NACC at the conference in 2019. To learn more about Robert please visit his website.
Educational Materials (recommended books, articles, or websites for participants to review prior to the program)
Mundle, R. (2018) How to be an even better listener: A practical guide for hospice and palliative care volunteers. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Mundle, R. (2015) A narrative analysis of spiritual distress in geriatric physical rehabilitation [special issue on narrative]. Journal of Health Psychology, 20(3), 273-285.
Mundle, R. (2015) I should be closer to God because of this. A case study of embodied narratives and spiritual reconstruction in spinal cord injury and stroke rehabilitation. Journal of Disability and Religion, 19, 30-49.
Mundle, R. (2014) Strong men don’t cry, but I’m not strong anymore. Bodily engagement with stories of loss and grief in palliative care. Illness, Crisis, and Loss, 22(4).
Mundle, R. & Smith, B. (2013) Hospital chaplains and embodied listening: Engaging with stories and the body in healthcare settings. Illness, Crisis, and Loss, 21(2) 95-108.
Mundle, R. (2011) The spiritual strength story in end of life care: Two case studies. Palliative and Supportive Care, 9(4), 419-424.