What can Elaine bring to your organization’s event as a speaker?

A masterful storyteller, Elaine incorporates hope, humor, and heart into her keynotes, breakout sessions, and training events for family and professional caregivers. Captivate your attendees and help them cope with the emotional stress of caregiving.

Caregiver Speaker Elaine K Sanchez

“You touched their hearts and gave them inspirational messages while offering practical advice and strategies for improving their lives of those in their care. Here are a few of the comments from the attendees’ evaluation forms:

Great empathy, made me cry and laugh!… Great storyteller and useful tips… Loved it!… Wonderful speaker… Appreciated the personal stories… Amazing… She needs to come back. .. I laughed, I cried, I needed tissues… She was great combining content, humor and heart… My heart soared, my heart broke… Wanted to give her a hug… Excellent blend of humor, truths, laughter and knowledge… Enjoyable, validating, and motivating… This alone was worth coming to the conference”

Bev Ricker, Program CoordinatorChallenges in CaregivingDepartment of Social and Health Services, Aging and Disability Services Administration, Olympia, WA

“Elaine is a touching, compassionate, and dynamic presenter.  She has a unique way to touch the hearts of everyone in the room. Our members were “wowed” with her sessions. She received 100% positive feedback on the post-conference evaluations.”

Mary Ellen Keller, Conference Consultant, , Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association

Partial Client List – Scroll through to see

Keynotes by Caregiver Speaker Elaine K Sanchez

For Family & Professional Caregivers

Based on her own experience, Elaine knows that caregiving is entirely too difficult to take seriously all of the time, so she artfully weaves humor and real-life caregiving stories into her keynotes, workshops and training events. Her presentations are entertaining and rich in content. Attendees come away feeling validated, uplifted, and encouraged to implement new strategies for coping with caregiver anger, guilt, depression, and grief.

Keynote:
Finding Hope and Humor in Caregiving

Based on her unflinchingly honest and surprisingly funny book, “Letters from Madelyn, Chronicles of a Caregiver,” Elaine’s keynote, “Finding Hope, Humor & Heart in Caregiving,” is part keynote, and part one-woman play that inspires and energizes both family and professional caregivers. Attendees laugh through their tears while learning practical strategies for coping with caregiver anger, guilt, depression, grief, and dementia-related challenging behaviors.

(Elaine customizes every presentation to meet the specific needs and issues of the attendees.)

Keynote:
Dad Did What? Dealing with Sexuality & Dementia

In this hilarious, heartwarming, and informative keynote, Elaine K Sanchez shares real-life stories and insights into dealing with dementia-related challenging behaviors with a special emphasis on surprising and inappropriate sexual behavior. Family and professional caregivers come away with a greater understanding of the reasons stroke survivors, people who take Dopamine to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s, and individuals living with cognitive disorders often display uninhibited and sometimes shocking sexual behavior. Attendees also learn strategies for minimizing a wide range of frustrating and disruptive behaviors and reducing stress for both the caregiver and the care receiver.

Click on the Video Vignette below to watch Elaine’s TEDX Talk, “Having the Sex Talk with Dad.”

Keynote:
Seven Strategies for Caregiver Survival

Attendees are motivated and moved by this presentation in which Elaine provides a self-care  action plan that includes:

  1. Developing an “Attitude of Creative Indifference”
  2. Connecting with a Caregiving Buddy
  3. Setting Boundaries
  4. How to Continue Living When a Loved One is Dying
  5. Recalling Happy Memories
  6. Saying Goodbye
  7. Finding Humor in Absurd Situations

Keynote:
So God, what are WE going to do today?

From a presentation to the Oregon Episcopal Women’s Conference in Salem, OR, Elaine’s keynote/one-woman play is based on her mother’s spiritual journey through six-and-a-half years of caring for her husband following his debilitating stroke. Attendees laugh through their tears as they share in Madelyn’s quest for knowledge and her desire to develop a deeper understanding and a more meaningful relationship with God.

This keynote is appropriate for any group with an open mind and the belief that there are many, many roads that lead to Damascus.

New Keynote:
Parkinson’s: Two Sides of the Same Coin

This keynote examines the lives of four couples and how each couple is managing the changes in their relationships because of Parkinson’s Disease. It also addresses how to make end-of-life choices when a loved one is living with a progressive and degenerative disease. 

Client Testimonial

As Co-Chair of the Program Committee for Parkinson Support and Wellness, Inc., I was delighted with Elaine’s keynote address for Caregivers and Persons with Parkinson’s entitled, “Two Sides of the Same Coin: Dealing with the Emotional Stress of Parkinson’s.” Her  approach of using several case studies along with the animated slides not only held everyone’s attention but illustrated so well the struggles and rewards of dealing with Parkinson’s. Her presentation was both creative and comforting

Mary Inkrot Schroeder, Co-Chair, Program Committee

Parkinson Support & Wellness, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio 

Attendee Comments (verbatim)

  • Really engaging
  • Entertaining and insightful
  • She was funny and accurate
  • Excellent speaker+outstanding material
  • Helpful, clear presentation about relationship changes with a debilitating condition
  • Outstanding integration of caregivers and persons with PD
  • Enjoyed humor and slides
  • Excellent –  It was like she talked directly to me and my situation; “I needed this!”

Keynote:
So God, what are WE going to do today?

From a presentation to the Oregon Episcopal Women’s Conference in Salem, OR, Elaine’s keynote/one-woman play is based on her mother’s spiritual journey through six-and-a-half years of caring for her husband following his debilitating stroke. Attendees laugh through their tears as they share in Madelyn’s quest for knowledge and her desire to develop a deeper understanding and a more meaningful relationship with God.

This keynote is appropriate for any group with an open mind and the belief that there are many, many roads that lead to Damascus.

Customized Breakout Sessions and Workshops
Caregiver Survival Training

For Family & Professional Caregivers

Whether it’s a one-hour breakout session or a full-day workshop, Elaine adapts her content to ensure your attendees come away feeling energized, encouraged, and equipped to implement new methods of coping with the emotional stress of caring for those who can no longer care for themselves.

By incorporating humorous stories and entertaining graphics into her presentations, Elaine keeps attendees engaged as they learn the three-step process of developing an “Attitude of Creative Indifference” toward the people, situations, and events that cause them the greatest amount of stress.

Coping with Caregiver Anger and Guilt

Taming Your Anger Monster:

Caregiver anger is an emotion frequently experienced by both family and professional caregivers. In this presentation Elaine K Sanchez addresses some of the reasons caregivers get angry, including the 3-F’s of Flipping Out, which are Fatigue, Fear, and Frustration. She provides a three-step process that helps caregivers develop an “Attitude of Creative Indifference” toward the people, situations, and events that make them angry, and she provides practical action steps for avoiding caregiver burnout and compassion fatigue.

Giving Caregiver Guilt the Boot:

The dictionary defines guilt as a feeling of having done something wrong or having failed in an obligation. Elaine believes it is a cruel and controlling emotion that is way overused by most family and professional caregivers. In this presentation, she helps attendees recognize the behavior of guilt-trippers, and she provides a unique strategy that helps them stop feeling guilty when they have not intentionally inflicted emotional or physical pain on another person. People often say that following Elaine’s method of coping with guilt is life-altering.

Managing Caregiver Depression & Grief

The emotional and physical symptoms of depression and grief are so similar that Elaine often refers to them as the “evil twins of caregiving”. In this presentation she addresses the differences between reactionary depression and clinical depression as well as treatments for both. She also explains the difference between preparatory grief and grief after death. Family and professional caregivers come away with strategies for honoring their feelings and caring for themselves while they work their way through the losses and emotional pain associated with caring for individuals who can no longer care for themselves.

Caring for the Caregiver

Caregiver Self-Care is critical to the survival of both family and professional caregivers, and yet it is one of things that most caregivers fail to do. In this breakout session, Elaine offers a series of survival tips are practical, applicable and empowering. The strategies may not be unique, but the stories attached to each tip are funny, poignant, and/or inspiring. From “Redefining Fun” to “Saying Goodbye”, each tip emphasizes the importance of caregiver self-care and helps caregivers develop their own personalized survival plan in order to avoid physical and emotional burnout.

Ducks in a Row

“Ducks in a Row” is an ideal presentation for people who are in the process of taking over the care of family elders, as well as individuals who want to control how their healthcare, finances, and possessions will be handled during the final stages of their own lives. From starting difficult conversations to completing end-of-life documents, Elaine provides attendees with a system that helps them get their ducks in a row.

Videos and Testimonials

What Meeting Planners Say About Caregiver Speaker Elaine K Sanchez

“The evaluations of our conference were all extremely positive and you were definitely the star of the day! I think many people felt as if they had made a new friend!”
Pam Wessel, MSSW
Director of Services
Pima Council on Aging, Tucson, AZ
“Elaine was delightful and personable with a very real take on life. I laughed and I cried. I learned many things I can use in my professional life as well as my personal life. Her keynote and workshop left me feeling refreshed.”
Diana Dolan, SHIP Counselor
Montana Gerontology Conference
“Elaine Sanchez is an unsurpassed author and speaker on elder care. She puts her heart, her incredibly savvy insight and amazing sense of humor into her work. She is original, inspiring, hilarious, down to earth, and practical all at once. For anyone who has been, is, or will be in a caregiver role, the wisdom she has to offer is a must.”
Melora Jackson MS, CMHT
Mississippi Department of Mental Health
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To Book Elaine Call: 503-949-2464

 

To learn more about Keynote Speaker Elaine K Speaker, visit her website

 

Or, Click Here

See Caregiver Speaker Elaine K Sanchez in Action

Dementia-Related Challenging Behaviors – Including Inappropriate Sexual Behavior: Understanding and managing the behavior of someone with dementia can be one of the most difficult challenges of caregiving. In this portion of Elaine’s workshops, she provides methods for effectively communicating with people who have dementia-related illness. She also addresses dementia-related surprising, uninhibited and inappropriate sexual behavior. Her real-life stories about sex and dementia never fail to generate belly laughs. At the same time it offers tremendous relief to family members and professional caregivers alike who were not aware that this type of behavior is not at all unusual in stroke survivors, people who have Alzheimer’s and individuals who are taking Dopamine to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

Caregiver Guilt is a cruel and controlling emotion. Elaine helps attendees recognize whether their feelings of guilt are self-imposed or being imposed upon them by someone else. She also helps caregivers identify the guilt-trippers in their lives, and she coaches them through a process that changes the way they respond to people who use anger and guilt to control others.

Caregiver Depression is part of the caregiving journey. Elaine discusses the two types of depression common to most caregivers – Reactionary Depression and Clinical Depression. She offers strategies for coping with Reactionary Depression and explains that Clinical Depression is a medical condition that requires medical treatment.

Caregiver Grief is a complicated process, especially for people who are losing someone they love to a progressive, degenerative disease. Elaine helps attendees understand that Preparatory Grief begins long before life ends, and she provides helpful strategies for coping with ongoing changes and losses. The characters featured in this video are presented as PowerPoint slides when Elaine talks about managing the emotional stress as caregivers go through the process of Preparatory Grief.

Caregiver Self-Care is critical to the survival of both family and professional caregivers, and yet it is one of things that most caregivers fail to do. In this portion of Elaine’s workshops, she offers a series of practical strategies for self-care and helps caregivers create their own personalized survival plan.

Or, Click Here

To Book Elaine Call: 503-949-2464

 

To learn more about Keynote Speaker Elaine K Speaker, visit her website

 

Or, Click Here