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Transformational Events
Michelle Peticolas, Ph.D is dedicated to shifting the way people think about and deal with death. Filmmaker, speaker, educator and coach, she helps people discover the life-enhancing lessons within the challenges of illness, death and loss. With a dynamic and engaging presence, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to every event, leaving attendees inspired and motivated to take action.
Book Michelle for your eventLearn More
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Selected Past Engagements

  • Impressive Event #01

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • Impressive Event #01

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • Impressive Event #01

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • Impressive Event #01

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • Impressive Event #02

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • Toast Master’s TV
— Being Brilliant

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

  • New School of Commonwealth
    Living With Cancer: 3 Keys to Peace

    Event topic and summary - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus a. Interdum velit laoreet id donec ultrices tincidunt arcu non sodales. Et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus. Adipiscing diam donec adipiscing tristique risus nec feugiat. Placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis.

A new outlook on death... and life

With an infectious curiosity, irreverent sense of humor and life-embracing spirit, Michelle gives presentations on death that are both uplifting and mind-expanding.

Using films, meditation and storytelling, filmmaker Dr. Peticolas facilitates the exploration of death, caring for the dying and grieving. By opening up the dialogue she enables people with life-threatening illness, healthcare professionals and ordinary people to examine their fears, share their needs, identify their challenges and enliven their approach to death and, simultaneously, to life.
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Popular Presentations

  • Facing Death While Living Life

    Although death awaits us all, it’s a subject our culture prefers to avoid. In this workshop, we face it straight on.

    Through the award-wining documentary Facing Death… with open eyes participants are introduced to the stories of four insightful individuals who share profound truths about living fully while facing death.

    This presentation will help participants to:

    • Explore beliefs and fears around death
    • Imagine worst-and best-case scenario for dying
    • Indentify unfinished business
    • Make action plans that support needs around dying
    • Become a more comfortable and less resistant to facing death.

  • Caring for Dying: the art of being present

    In the face of impending death, the needs of the caregiver are often forgotten. In this workshop, the caregiver gets center stage. Viewing the film, Caring for Dying: the art of being present, participants are invited to recall our own experiences as three courageous individuals share their best and worst stories of accompanying the dying.

    From this workshop participants will:

    • Gain valuable insights about the spiritual and emotional rewards of caring for the dying
    • Learn how to avoid or navigate some of the traps and pitfalls
    • Practice strategies for staying present
    • Discover the healing power of forgiveness and letting go.

  • The Heart of Grieving

    Because contemporary Western society has such an aversion to death it is often difficult to find either the space or emotional support that is so necessary to handling loss. In this workshop, grief gets center stage. Beginning with the screening of the documentary, The Heart of Grieving, workshop participants are invited to take a journey from diagnosis to death to mourning as four individuals recall the arduous and at times ecstatic process of grieving.

    Participants will gain:

    • A deeper understanding for the process of grief
    • Effective strategies for coping with loss
    • Ideas for handling painful anniversaries and milestones
    • Personal insight as to how death can be an impetus for positive transformation.

Other Presentations

  • Communicating Authentic Leadership
    These turbulent times call for a new kind of leadership, one in which we all play a part. We can no longer afford to waiting for a hero to ride in on a white charger and save us. The solution to the world’s problems is within all of us. Are you ready to make a difference?
  • Leaving Your Authentic Legacy: 3 Keys to Claiming Your Power
    Legacy is often described in terms of the property we leave behind. Our authentic legacy, however, is about fulfilling our life purpose and living true to ourselves. In this fast-paced world of over-commitment, over-whelm, and over-stress, it is easy to lose track of what that means.
  • Navigating Change: Avoiding 3 Pitfalls
    Everything changes! Everything is impermanent! Yet we are often surprised and upseteven when we invite change. Understanding the socio-biology of why we respond the way we do can enable us to develop better ways to navigate the changes life brings.
  • Share Your Brilliance: Healing the Past So You Can Leave Your Legacy
    Our inner brilliance, passion, and life force are often tamped down, even crushed through emotional wounding, misguided parenting, and the survival strategies learned in childhood. Discover effective methods to reduce fear and shift negativity to more easily fulfill your mission and leave your legacy.
  • From Stuck to Unstoppable: 3 Keys to Mastering Overwhelm & Stress
    People struggling with overwhelm and stress, feeling stuck, or having difficulties in business, may be missing some important tools in their emotional toolbox. Michelle will reveal effective strategies for releasing emotions, mastering thoughts, and cultivating connections to improve business and create a life worth living.
  • From Stuck to Unstoppable:
    3 Keys to Releasing Trapped Emotions
    People struggling with their emotions, feeling stuck or having difficulties with others, may be missing some important tools in their emotional toolbox. Michelle will reveal effective strategies for releasing feelings, mastering limiting beliefs and cultivating connection in order to create a life worth living.
  • Second Chance Secrets: Upgrading to Premium Clients
    The pandemic has changed the way we do business. Most of our communications, promotions, and networking have moved online, requiring new approaches to sharing your message, your business, and yourself.
  • And more
    If you have something else in mind for your event, feel free to reach out and I’ll be happy to discuss your idea!

Happy Attendees

Read what previous conference attendees and event organizers have to say about their experience.
    Michelle is a terrific presenter — students are still talking about her three “secrets” for releasing grief

    Michelle gave a wonderful presentation to my Death and Dying class at UC Berkeley. She is a terrific presenter, and I was especially struck by how she used her whole body to illustrate her points, visibly modeling the body–mind connection that she talks about.

    A week later, the students are still talking about her three “secrets” for releasing grief and how they might be used in a helping situation. They were especially struck by the idea of “changing the story,” rather than just re-traumatizing and re-victimizing by telling the same story over and over

    Professor Andy E. Scharlach
    School of Social Work, University of California, Berkeley

    It was reassuring to hear others relate experiences similar to ones I had, that seemed a little unbelievable at the time.

    I want to commend Michelle for putting this very special workshop together. Her passion, knowledge and spirit shine through.

    Speaking so openly to strangers was really healing

    “The Heart of Grieving” was a wonderful way to access many of the areas of grief. Speaking so openly to strangers was really healing. I was able to see my suffering in others.

    Helpful in preparing myself for when a client passes

    This presentation is helpful in preparing myself for when a client passes, learned really helpful strategies from others in the field and seeing death and dying from a different perspective.

    Michelle’s presentation has given me a greater sensitivity to the processes of grief, life and death and more awareness about the need to observe.

    RN
    Volunteer Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic
    Very effective in conveying the experience of cancer families and sensitizing our volunteers

    We have had difficulty in the past finding an impactful way of addressing these important issues.

    Michelle’s film, with its very personal, heart-felt stories, has been very effective in conveying the experience of cancer families and sensitizing our volunteers to the importance of openness, compassion, empathy and respect.

    Jill Arnold
    Volunteer Services Manager, Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic
    An opportunity to re-examine personal thoughts and feelings around life and death

    The film gives me an opportunity to re-examine personal thoughts and feelings around life and death once again despite feeling that I am comfortable at present with this.

    I have loved seeing how Michelle has captured each individual’s journey through their illness while exploring a journey of her own.

    This can all be applied in my practice no matter where I go as life and death is an everyday event, so it seems.

    The more we share, the less alone we are

    Excellent to be able to talk about reality of death for all of us, especially if you have had a family member facing death within the year. It helps us to walk ourselves and our loved ones home. The more we share, the less alone we are.

    Makes it easier for me to deal with my death.

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