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.
What the Course Covers
Module 1
Arriving in Elderhood
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
The Space Between: Frameworks and the Live Demo
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
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
Sacred Witness, Eros, and Welcoming What Is
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, Gratitude, and the Sacred in Every Moment
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
Death and Dying: The Conversation We Keep Avoiding
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
Legacy: What We Leave and How We Live It Forward
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
The Roles of an Elder: What Elderhood Asks of You
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.
Plus, Get Access To An Incredible Collection Of Bonus Content...
bonus 01
Expert Interview
With Richard Strozzi, Paul Browde, and Hedy Schleifer
In this rich and thought-provoking conversation, Richard Strozzi-Heckler explores elderhood through the lens of embodiment, presence, and lifelong practice. Together with Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde, he reflects on how aging invites us to let go of old identities, deepen our connection to purpose, and meet life’s challenges with greater wisdom and compassion. Drawing from decades of work in somatics, martial arts, leadership, and conflict transformation, Richard offers practical insights into staying grounded, centered, and open to possibility—revealing elderhood not as a decline, but as an ongoing adventure of learning, service, and becoming more fully human.
bonus 02
Expert Interview
With Claudette C’Faison, Paul Browde, and Hedy Schleifer
In this inspiring and deeply personal conversation, Claudette C’Faison explores elderhood as a time of rebirth, authenticity, and spiritual awakening rather than decline. Drawing on decades of work in mentorship and transformation, she reflects on the unique questions each stage of life asks of us, the importance of completing old stories and losses, and the freedom that comes from living in alignment with purpose rather than fear. With wisdom, humor, and profound insight, Claudette invites listeners to trust their inner guidance, embrace change, and see elderhood as an opportunity to become more fully themselves than ever before.
bonus 03
Expert Interview
With Rosanne Leipzig, Paul Browde, and Hedy Schleifer
In this engaging conversation, renowned geriatrician Rosanne Leipzig joins Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde to challenge common myths about aging and elderhood. Drawing on decades of experience caring for older adults, Rosanne explores how ageism shapes the way we view both elders and ourselves, while offering a refreshing vision of later life as a time of growth, freedom, curiosity, and possibility. Together, they discuss what it means to age honestly, embrace change, stay connected, and create a meaningful legacy—revealing why elderhood can be one of the most vibrant and rewarding stages of life.
bonus 04
Expert Interview
With Edy Nathan, Paul Browde, and Hedy Schleifer
In this deeply moving conversation, grief expert and psychotherapist Edy Nathan joins Hedy Schleifer and Paul Browde to explore the profound relationship between grief, aging, identity, and liberation. Together, they challenge the notion that grief is something to “get over,” instead revealing it as a lifelong teacher that can deepen our capacity for love, presence, and meaning. Through personal stories of loss, reflections on elderhood, and Edy’s groundbreaking work on “sexual grief” and the liberation of hidden or wounded parts of ourselves, the conversation offers a powerful invitation to embrace aging as a time of possibility rather than decline.
bonus 05
Expert Interview
bonus 06
Expert Interview
With Mindy Fullilove & Paul Browde
bonus 07
Expert Interview
With Mary Pender Greene & Paul Browde
bonus 08
1 hour demo
Our courses are at the intersection of psychotherapy, spirituality and social change.
Here is what most therapist trainings gives you when it comes to aging:
- A checklist.
- Cognitive screening tools.
- Depression scales.
- A module on grief.
- Perhaps something on end-of-life planning…
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 here is what training almost never addresses at all: 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.
Meet Your Presenter
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, lobby, basement.”
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.
