Join Hedy Schleifer & Paul Browde

The Heart of Elderhood:

How to Age Consciously and Help Others Do The Same

Free 90-minute Live Interactive Conversation

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026
9am PDT / 10am MDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST

How Do We Grow Older With Presence, Purpose, And A Deepened Capacity To Love?

Something shifts in the later chapters of life.

The questions change, loss moves closer, and time feels different.

And for many people, and for the elders they love, care for, or sit with professionally, there is no real map for this territory.

Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde have spent decades in that territory. Between them, they have accompanied hundreds of people through the deepest passages of later life, and they have lived much of it themselves.

In this free 90-minute conversation, they will share what they’ve learned: about what it means to truly become an elder (not just grow older), about how loss and mortality can open us rather than diminish us, and about how to be genuinely present with someone who is navigating what may be the most meaningful and most difficult season of their life. This is not a lecture. It is an invitation into a different kind of conversation about aging, one that is honest, soulful, and alive.

This LIVE Event Is For You If You Are A...

Therapist, counselor, psychiatrist, or coach who works with elder clients and finds yourself uncertain how to hold the territory. Ths might include conversations about things like death anxiety, loss of purpose, grief, the erotic life of older people, the spiritual questions that become urgent in ways they never were before.

Elder yourself, in what Louise Aronson calls phase one (65–80) or phase two (80 and beyond), and you are done with the cultural story that this season of life is a diminishment. You are ready for a different conversation.

At any stage of your career and know, somewhere, that your own aging belongs in this conversation. That how you relate to your own elderhood, or your parents’ elderhood, or the losses accumulating in your own life, shows up in the room with your clients whether you name it or not.

Caregiver, parent, partner, or a beloved elder, who wants to understand what they are experiencing from the inside, not just what you can observe from the outside.

Clergy member, chaplain, spiritual director, or end-of-life doula who accompanies people through the hardest passages and wants a richer language for what you’re holding.

Someone who loves an elder and wants to cross the bridge to their world rather than watching from a distance, not knowing what to say.

During this this conversation, you will:

1. Discover the difference between growing older and becoming an elder, and why that distinction matters
2. Explore how loss, change, and mortality can become portals to deeper wisdom, meaning, and presence
3. Hear real stories and lived reflections from two seasoned clinicians who have spent decades accompanying others through love, grief and transformation
4. Receive thoughtful frameworks for supporting others through the inner and relational terrain of elderhood

Hedy Schleifer, BA, MA

Hedy Schleifer, Master Relationship Builder

Hedy is an internally renowned master relationship builder and motivational speaker. Her beloved life’s work is in guiding people to experience the most-alive and joyful connection with each other, on the path to relational intelligence and maturity.

She has 50 years of professional experience and is the founder of Encounter-centered Transformation (EcT). Speaking seven languages and having taught EcT in dozens of countries, worldwide, Hedy proudly works with people of all races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual and general orientations.

Hedy believes that world peace begins with the human family, and it is best achieved through strong, committed, and growing relationships of all kinds.

Paul Browde, MD

Paul Browde, MD. is a psychiatrist, storyteller, couples guide, and educator who integrates narrative and relational practices in mental health and personal growth. Trained in both medicine and acting, he has practiced psychiatry in Manhattan for over thirty years. His approach combines Internal Family Systems, Narrative Therapy, Mindfulness, and Coaching, focusing on deep listening and story as tools for transformation.

As co-founder of Narativ Inc. and a former Columbia Narrative Medicine faculty member, he teaches storytelling methods to clinicians, organizations, and advocacy groups worldwide. Dr. Browde also co-created and performs “Two Men Talking,” an unscripted, international storytelling show that exemplifies his commitment to healing through authentic connection.