with Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde
The Art of Elderhood
Wisdom, Loss, and the Practice of Full Presence
A Letter to You
There’s a conversation happening in our culture about aging…
But it doesn’t ring true…
The conversation tends to focus on decline, on loss, and on managing what remains. It frames elderhood as something to resist, to hide, or to endure rather than as a meaningful stage of life to be entered with awareness and care.
But what if there’s another way to understand this season?
The course that Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde have created together invites us into a very different conversation; one that doesn’t turn away from the realities of aging, but meets them with presence, curiosity, and depth.
This is not a course about coping with elderhood, it’s an invitation to inhabit it.
This course will explore what becomes possible when this stage of life is approached with honesty, with humor, with grief where it’s needed, and with a renewed connection to purpose, vitality, and meaning. It will teach you to recognize the particular kind of wisdom that can only emerge from a life that has been fully lived.
For clinicians, this work has the potential to profoundly shift how you meet your elder clients; how you listen, what you attune to, and what you make space for in the therapeutic relationship.
And beyond your work, it may also gently reshape how you relate to the elders in your own life.
And perhaps, in time, how you come to understand your own aging… Not as something to manage, but as something to enter into, with intention.
This Program Is For You If…
You’re a therapist, counselor, psychiatrist, or coach
who works with elder clients and finds yourself uncertain how to hold space for death anxiety, loss of purpose, grief, the erotic life of older people, and the spiritual questions that become urgent in ways they never were before. You want frameworks and practices that go deeper than symptom management.
You’re a 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.
You're at a stage in your career where
you know, somewhere, that your own aging belongs in this conversation. You know 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.
You’re a caregiver
for a parent, a partner, a beloved elder who wants to understand what they are experiencing from the inside, not just what you can observe from the outside.
You’re an elder yourself,
in what Louise Aronson calls phase one (65–74), phase two (75-84), or phase three (85 and beyond), and you are done with the cultural story that this season of life is a time of diminishment. You’re ready for a different conversation…
You’re someone who loves an elder
and wants to cross the bridge into their world rather than watch from a distance, unsure what to say.
What No One Teaches Therapists About Elderhood
Here is what this course will NOT teach:
- A checklist.
- Cognitive screening tools.
- A roadmap for moving through Elderhood
- End of life planning tools
Here is what it almost never gives you:
- How to sit with someone who is terrified of dying without rushing to reassure them.
- How to understand the elder who feels invisible at the family dinner table and has translated that invisibility into depression, when actually what they need is a new role, not a new medication.
- How to accompany someone through the particular grief of losing not just people, but capacities, identities, and the version of themselves the world used to recognize.
- How to honor the erotic life of an 81-year-old without embarrassment or clinical distance.
- How to ask someone what their wildest dream is, and mean it, when they are 85 years old.
And importantly, we want to bring into the conversation something you may not yet have considered: your own aging.
The fact that you are in the room too.
Your fear of elderhood, your complicated relationship to your own parents’ decline, your unexamined assumptions about what a life in its final chapters is worth, all of it is present in every session with an elder client.
This course addresses all of it, directly, personally, and with extraordinary depth.
Who Are Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde?
Hedy Schleifer
Hedy Schleifer is 81 years old and one of the most important relationship therapists working in the world today. Born in Belgium, shaped by the Holocaust, a survivor of breast cancer, widow of her beloved Yumi after 57 years of marriage, Hedy has crossed more thresholds than most people can imagine, and she has crossed each one with her eyes open.
For decades, Hedy has taught her relational framework, grounded in the philosophy of Martin Buber, to therapists, couples, and communities around the world. Her foundational concepts: the sacred space between us, the bridge between worlds, the practice of hosting and visiting, the encounter where souls meet, have transformed the work of thousands of clinicians.
She describes her role now as an elevator repair person.
“I arrange for the elevator to take you everywhere it’s meant to take you — penthouse (the thinking mind), lobby (the emotional mind), basement (the place of raw emotions and instinct).”
At 81, she is still doing exactly that. This course is part of her legacy.
Hedy is an internationally 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.
Paul Browde
Paul Browde is a psychiatrist, therapist, and teacher who has been practicing and teaching for over 30 years. At 25, he received an HIV diagnosis and was told he had perhaps two years to live. That diagnosis catapulted him into an early and permanent reckoning with mortality, with aliveness itself, that has shaped every aspect of his clinical work and his teaching ever since.
Paul trained with Hedy over several years and has integrated her frameworks into his practice so completely that he once called her and said,
“I feel like I’m impersonating you.” She said, “Keep doing that. At a certain point it will become yours.”
It has. He brings to this course a psychiatrist’s precision, a storyteller’s gift, and a depth of personal experience with loss, purpose, and conscious living that is immediately recognizable as real and authentic.
Together, Hedy and Paul are not just two experts presenting material; they are two people in genuine relationship, modeling in real time everything the course teaches. Their conversations, unrehearsed, alive, sometimes surprising even to themselves, are what make up most of the course. You don’t just learn about the space between, you watch it happen.
The Story Behind This Course
Last year, Paul was taking a course called Unmasking Mortality, a year-long practice of living as if it were your last year. The course leader was a friend who was himself dying, leading the course through his final months.
In that course, Paul was asked: what would you regret?
One of his answers was Hedy. He hadn’t seen her in too long. He called her, flew to Washington DC, and they spent a day together, talking, reading poetry, watching recordings of each other’s work, singing, going to lunch. At the end of the day, as they were leaving, Hedy said:
“What a pity there wasn’t a camera here today.”
Paul said: would you be open to that?
She said yes.
Filmed over four days in March 2026, this course is the record of what two people in genuine elderhood, phase one and phase two, discovered when they sat down together and refused to look away from anything.
Our courses are at the intersection of psychotherapy, spirituality and social change.
We know you have options for learning and Continuing Education. Here’s what sets us apart:
Emphasis on Your Learning
We offer a friendly, intuitive learning portal designed specifically so you can easily find your course content, connect with your colleagues, and have fun actually completing it!
Professional Production Quality
A real camera crew with high-end equipment, a deeply involved content director who works closely with every presenter, and a top-notch editing team with over 200 courses produced to date all make our video lessons second-to-none. Each learning module is split into digestible video segments so they are easy to watch and reflect on.
Unparalleled Customer Service
We're proud to maintain a customer happiness rating of over 90%, with 85% of inquiries responded to within 6 hours. We're here for you, every step of the way.
We ensure that your learning experience is not just adequate, but exceptional. We believe learning should challenge and change you.
What the Course Covers
Module 1
Elderhood is Not A Problem to Be Solved, But an Adventure to Be Lived
LIVE call (for Modules 1 & 2) June 9th, 2026
9am PT/10am MT/ 12pm ET
Hedy and Paul begin by naming what elderhood actually is: not a demographic category but an inner experience, a threshold crossed. Through their own stories of mortality, aliveness, and the young ones who still live inside them, they challenge the cultural story of aging as decline and begin to articulate what this season of life uniquely offers. The foundational frameworks are introduced: the elevator, the wildest dream, and the distinction between phase one and phase two elderhood.
Key concepts: The elevator (penthouse/lobby/basement). The wildest dream. Phase one and phase two elderhood. Eldering as a role and a practice. The little ones who never leave.
Module 2
Elderhood and Purpose: Continuity and Transformation
LIVE call (for Modules 1 & 2) June 9th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/12pm ET
Paul and Hedy introduce the three invisible connectors that hold relationships together: the sacred space between, the bridge between worlds, and the encounter where souls meet, drawing on the philosophy of Martin Buber. The module culminates in a live, unrehearsed demonstration of hosting and visiting, in which Hedy invites Paul to cross the bridge and visit the neighborhood of elderhood in her world for the very first time. Something genuinely new emerges in that encounter, making the teaching visible in real time.
Key concepts: The space between. Hosting and visiting. The three invisible connectors. Generative presencing. The neighborhoods. The live demonstration of the work.
Module 3
Loss, Loneliness, and Purpose
LIVE Call (for Modules 3 & 4) June 16th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
This module enters the harder territory: grief, loneliness, and the question of what remains when so much has changed. Through Hedy’s mother’s teaching on hello and goodbye, the story of Yumi’s 30th husband, and Paul’s own origin stories of aliveness, they show how loss and purpose are not opposites but gateways to each other. A guided meditation and journaling practice invite learners to find the big story in their own lives; the moment in the body where purpose first announced itself.
Key concepts: Hello and goodbye. The 30th husband. Companioning. The big story. Narrative medicine. Purpose as the thread beneath the losses.
Module 4
Elderhood and the Body: Pleasure, Loss, and Presence
LIVE Call (for Modules 3 & 4) June 16th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
This module covers the most unexpected territory in the course: the shift from content to process as the elder’s essential pivot, the discovery of the sacred witness role, and an unusually honest conversation about eros, desire, and pleasure as vital dimensions of elderhood. Hedy and Paul explore how the losses of aging can be reframed not through denial but through genuine welcoming, retiring old forms, and rewiring into new ones.
Key concepts: Content vs. process. Sacred witness. Rewiring not retiring. Language creates reality. Eros as communication and spiritual transcendence. Welcoming what is.
Module 5
Spirituality in Elderhood
LIVE Call (for Modules 5 & 6) June 23rd, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
The module lifts to the largest questions; meaning, mystery, and what it means to live in connection with something larger than yourself. Hedy grounds the spiritual in the relational, returning to Buber’s teaching that authentic human encounter is itself the experience of the divine, illustrated by Paul’s story of a dying woman in a Bronx nursing home held by nurses who finally heard her. The module closes with Hedy leading a gratitude meditation, the first time she has led one, walking the full arc of a life in appreciation.
Key concepts: God as the energy between. Essence vs. survival pattern. The relational paradigm as the spiritual paradigm. The angel of forgetting. The neighborhood of gratitude.
Module 6
Facing Mortality: The Art of Death and Dying
LIVE Call (for Modules 5 & 6) June 23rd, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
Mortality is no longer theoretical in elderhood. This module goes directly into the territory most courses flinch from… Paul tells the story of Derek, a friend who chose medical assistance in dying and whose final weekend was a joyous, singing, forest-walking celebration of a life fully lived. Hedy tells the story of Yumi’s final days at home, his death, and his burial in Israel. Both name what they want for their own dying. And both offer clinicians a map for sitting with a dying client’s fear without rushing to fix it.
Key concepts: Visiting the neighborhood of dying. The five things people want to say. Derek’s death as a model of conscious dying. The continuing bond after death. Dying as an extraordinary learning experience.
Module 7
The Role of the Elder
LIVE Call (for Modules 7 & 8) June 30th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
Legacy is not a monument; it is a living transmission, the way your purpose moves through you and into the world in forms that will outlive you. This module explores lineage (what you have received) and legacy (what you are passing on). Paul leads a guided meditation on the neighborhood of teachers. Hedy tells the story of Yumi insisting they cross the bridge to Germany and Austria, and the grandson of a Nazi who stood up and wept. The question underneath all of it: what do you want to be remembered for?
Key concepts: Lineage and legacy. The torch and how to pass it. The dining room table. The neighborhood of teachers. Legacy as a way of being in the space.
Module 8
Lineage and Legacy
LIVE Call (for Modules 7 & 8) June 30th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
The final module names the roles that elderhood makes possible, and asks the learner to claim theirs. This could be the role of Sacred witness, Sacred listener, The guide, The story keeper, The bridge builder, The one who blesses, or The model. Through stories, like that of a tattooed man in an elevator, a woman humiliated in a restaurant, and a grandson learning to hold space, Hedy and Paul show what it looks like when an elder inhabits these roles as a natural expression of who they’ve become. The closing question: who are you as an elder, and what is your role?
Key concepts: The roles of an elder. From aging to saging. Elderhood as a conscious practice. The space you leave behind.
FINAL LIVE CALL:
Integration
July 14th, 2026
9am PT/ 10am MT/ 12pm ET
Plus, Get Access To An Incredible Collection Of Bonus Content...
A Conversation Between Richard Strozzi and Paul Browde
A Conversation Between Ron Rifkin and Paul Browde
A Conversation Between Rosanne Leipzig and Paul Browde
A Conversation Betweeen Edy Nathan and Paul Browde
There will be 5 LIVE Calls with Paul and Hedy…
Call 1: June 9
This call will be an opportunity to further discuss and explore concepts from modules 1 and 2
Call 2: June 16
will focus on modules 3 and 4
Call 3: June 23
will focus on modules 5 and 6
Call 4: June 30
will focus on modules 7 and 8
Call 5: July 14
This call will be an opportunity for integration and addressing any remaining questions participants may have.
What You Will Walk Away With
For your clinical work:
- A complete framework for working with elder clients; their losses, their purpose, their death anxiety, their spiritual questions, etc., grounded in both relational theory and deep personal experience so that you can meet the full complexity of this stage of life with confidence, depth, and attunement… rather than feeling unsure of what truly matters in the room.
- The content/process distinction as a clinical tool: how to track the space between rather than getting lost in the content of what’s being said so that you can stay oriented to what’s happening beneath the words, where the deepest shifts often begin.
- The sacred witness role as a reframe for clients who feel invisible, purposeless, or cut off from the world they knew so that you can help restore a sense of dignity, meaning, and being seen, often in ways your clients haven’t experienced in years.
- A practice for helping elder clients name, claim, and transmit their legacy right now, not at the end so that your clients can experience a sense of completion, contribution, and continuity while they are still here to live it.
- Language and frameworks for working with couples where elderhood is changing everything so that you can support partners in navigating this transition together, rather than growing apart in the face of change.
- The five things people want to say when dying and how to help clients say them now so that important truths are spoken, relationships are repaired, and nothing essential is left unsaid.
- Generative presencing as a clinical practice: how to listen in a way that generates something new for the person in front of you so that your presence itself becomes a catalyst for insight, healing, and new possibilities.
For yourself:
- A richer, more honest relationship with your own aging and your own elderhood so that you can meet this season of your life with openness and curiosity, rather than resistance or fear.
- The neighborhoods meditation as a tool for self-exploration you can return to throughout your life so that you have a reliable way to come back to yourself, again and again, as life continues to unfold.
- A practice for helping elder clients name, claim, and transmit their legacy right now, not at the end so that your clients can experience a sense of completion, contribution, and continuity while they are still here to live it.
- A practice for finding the big story; the moment in the body where your purpose first announced itself so that you can reconnect with what has always been guiding you, even if it’s been hard to name.
- A lineage meditation that connects you to all those who have shaped you and all those who will carry you forward so that you can feel yourself as part of something larger, held within a continuum of past and future.
- A gratitude practice that deepens with age and can be done daily so that appreciation becomes more available, even alongside grief, change, and uncertainty.
- A different relationship to dying: your own, and others’ so that this reality can be approached with more peace, presence, and meaning, rather than avoidance or fear.
As part of this program:
- All eight modules in full, filmed over four days: alive, unrehearsed, and genuine
- The complete live demonstration of hosting and visiting between Hedy and Paul
- All guided meditations: The Future Self, The Big Story, The Neighborhood of Gratitude, and The Neighborhood of Teachers
- Access to Hedy’s journal, written in the month after Yumi died, shared on the live calls
- Five Live sessions with Hedy and Paul
- Lifetime access to all recordings
- Exciting Bonus Materials
What Makes This Different
Most courses on aging and elderhood are organized around problems, including cognitive decline, grief, end-of-life planning, and depression in older adults. These are real and important issues, but they take the cultural story of elderhood as decline as their starting point, and try to help you manage that decline more skillfully.
This course starts somewhere completely different.
It starts with the proposition that elderhood, consciously inhabited, is one of the most generative and alive seasons a human being can experience…
That the losses are real and must be met with full presence, not managed from a distance.
That the space between an elder and another person is sacred and worth tending.
That purpose doesn’t end when the job ends.
That dying can be approached with curiosity, even joy.
That the erotic life of an older person is not an afterthought.
That gratitude, practiced daily, rewires the brain toward aliveness.
It’s taught not from a lectern but from inside a genuine relationship; two people in elderhood, modeling in real time what it looks like to meet this season of life with full presence.
You will not watch this course from a distance, it will reach through the screen and find you where you are.
A Note on Hedy and Paul
Something happened during the filming of this course that wasn’t planned.
In the middle of one session, Hedy’s bracelet, given to her by Yumi on their 23rd wedding anniversary, engraved with the words eternal love, broke. Right there, on camera, as they were talking about legacy.
She looked at it and said:
“I feel like Yumi is reminding all of us that we are responsible to cross the bridge. To not live with broken connections.”
That is what this course is: four days of not living with broken connections, of crossing the bridge to each other, to elderhood itself, to dying, to legacy, and to the neighborhoods inside us that have never had an official visitor.
Hedy said at the end of the filming:
“I have no idea what’s going to come next. I just know that something new occurred here that I didn’t know before.”
That newness is available to you too.
If you are a BIPOC helping professional , please accept our discounted enrollment price for this course by clicking here (single payment) or clicking here (three payments) We are glad to have you with us!
This course comes with a full satisfaction guarantee. If you complete the first two modules and do not find it worth your investment, contact us for a full refund. We are that confident in what Hedy and Paul have created.
A Final Word
There is a poem by Shel Silverstein that Hedy and Paul read during the filming of this course:
“Inside you, boy, there’s an old man sleeping, dreaming, waiting for his chance.
Inside you, girl, there’s an old lady dozing, wanting to show you a slower dance.
So keep on playing, keep on running, keep on jumping,
till the day that those old folks down inside you wake up and come out to play with you.”
The old folks are waking up… In you, in your clients, in the world.
This course is for everyone who wants to be ready when they do.
The Art of Elderhood is an Academy of Therapy Wisdom production.