2025 Quarterly CEU Sessions

In this year of global transition, LC has decided to not hold an in-person or virtual conference for 2025. Instead, we will offer quarterly CEU sessions, giving the MTAI opportunities to learn, grow, see and support each other more frequently, without much cost.
 

2025 Quarter 4 CEU

A Harpist at the Treshold: Hospice Stories of Love and Grace

Through story and harp, a music-thanatologist shares how, even in the most uncertain hours, an innate wisdom can arise – unbidden, unspoken, and profoundly human – and how music can quietly support this unfolding.

LIVE STREAMED on Sunday, November 2 at 7 PM Eastern (4 PM Pacific/5 PM Mountain). A recording will be emailed after the presentation once it has been compiled.

About the artist:

Jayne Demakos is a contemplative musician and music-thanatologist, certified by the Music-Thanatology Association International in 2020. She holds a BA in Piano Performance from Ithaca College and has taught music as medicine at the Ithaca College School of Music. Over the past 17 years, she has provided harp and voice at the bedside in healthcare settings, including Hospicare & Palliative Care Services and Providence St. Peter Hospital. Jayne is a founding faculty member of the Accorda Music Thanatology Institute and an entrepreneur with programs like GriefSong and CompassionHarp. She is also a choir director and private music instructor, and has released three recordings, including Sacred Chant: A Small Offering(2022).

 

Registration

If you have not purchased the full CEU bundle, please use the button below to register.

If you already purchased the full CEU bundle, you’re all set—no need to register again. You’ll receive the presentation link prior to the event.

A Harpist at the Threshold: Hospice Stories of Love & Grace
  

Previous 2025 CEU Sessions

2025 Quarter 3 CEU Session: Healing Vessel with Wini Nimrod — Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. 5:30pm Pacific/ 6:30pm Mountain/ 7:30pm Central/ 8:30pm Eastern

2025 has been a full year for our community of music-thanatologists. We have new graduates starting their careers, long time members retiring their practices, the completion of a first cohort. In July, we are celebrating and honoring. In August, we would like to invite you to earn a CEU by filling your cup.

Spiritual director, meditation teacher and Barbara Brennan healer Wini Nimrod will be leading us in a Healing Vessel ritual. “Healing Vessel is sacred time; an inward time of quiet, of listening into Silence — a time to receive and be nourished by the Sacred. A time to rest into the Beloved whispers, into her wordless Beauty-wisdom, into uncovering your luminous gold. Together we weave a healing vessel that invites in the sacred, the elements of healing, and music in response to each person’s energy, opening the channels of awareness to support rest, relaxation, centering, and pain relief.”

This healing vessel session will include poetry, lectio divina, journaling, sharing time, a metta meditation a silent meditation and music. We hope you will join us!

Competency: Personal Competency
CEU Hours: 1.5

You’ll receive the Zoom link before the start of the session.

 

2025 Quarter 2 CEU Session: Q&A with Deb Strohecker, Palliative Care Nurse — Tuesday, May 13th, 2025

The second CEU offering will be a medical competency and will take place on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 8:30pm Eastern/ 7:30pm Central/ 6:30pm Mountain/ 5:30pm Pacific. Palliative Nurse Deb Strohecker, RN, BSN, CHPN will be available to answer questions during a Q&A session.

After this session, attendees should be familiar with:

  1. The latest and most effective medications for pain management
  2. The differences in approach between hospice and palliative care
  3. Scales used to determine pain and agitation
  4. A wealth of knowledge in response to audience questions

Competency: Medical
CEU Hours: 1

You’ll receive the Zoom link before the start of the session.

Deb Strohecker RN BSN CHPN

Deb Strohecker is the nurse on an interprofessional Inpatient Palliative Care Service in Portland Oregon. The service also includes physicians, a nurse practitioner, social workers and a chaplain. She has spent the past 22 years of her nursing career working exclusively in hospice/palliative care. She is passionate about advocating for her patients and the people that are important in their lives to ensure their values and goals are respected.

Originally from Massachusetts, Deb has lived in the Pacific Northwest for 35 years. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her spouse and child, knitting, and watching British murder mysteries.

2025 Quarter 1 CEU Session: Qualities of Music, historical and present day with Jonathan Metzinger

The first CEU offering will be a musical competency, and will take place on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 8:30pm Eastern/ 7:30pm Central/ 6:30pm Mountain/ 5:30pm Pacific. Music-Thanatologist Margaret Pasquesi will be interviewing Jonathan Metzinger, a Chicago based prodigy pianist, composer and music director, about qualities of music, both in historical and present day contexts. Jonathan will be at a piano or harpsichord (we haven’t decided yet!) to play examples. The interview will be followed by a question and answer period for everyone present on the call.

At the completion of this session, attendees should be able to describe:

1) The musical qualities that were historically ascribed to the ecclesiastical modes, pre-equal temperament tunings and the modern development of keys and their emotions

2) The musical qualities historically and currently ascribed to various instruments.

3) The musical qualities that can be produced through compositional and delivery choices regardless of mode, key or instrumentation.

Competency: Musical
Hours: 1.5

 Jonathan Metzinger is a composer living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Jonathan’s music has been performed throughout the United States, Central America, and Europe by notable ensembles such as the Chicago Arts Orchestra, OperaMaya Festival Orchestra, Indiana University Latin American Ensemble, Indiana University Concert Orchestra, Indiana Wesleyan University Orchestra, Midwest Young Artists, and Metropolis Youth Symphony Orchestra. Classically trained, Jonathan composes in a wide array of styles including orchestral, chamber, choral, jazz, and electronic music. While not just confined to the concert stage, Jonathan has collaborated with artists of various mediums to provide soundtracks to film, multimedia, and dance. At the age of 16, Jonathan made his international debut as pianist soloing at the Teatro Nacional Miguel Ángel Asturias in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Jonathan received his bachelor’s degree in composition in May 2014 from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where he studied with Don Freund, Claude Baker, Sven-David Sandström, and P.Q. Phan. Additionally, he spent a year studying composition in Vienna, Austria with Miguel Kertsman. In 2014, Jonathan was the composer-in-residence of the OperaMaya International Opera Festival where K’atun, a large work for orchestra and chorus in the Maya language, was premiered. Currently, Jonathan is the Director of Music at Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish in Wilmette, Illinois.