Care for the Caregiver
A Client-Centered Framework to Ease the Stress and Burden of Dementia Caregiving
- Speaker:
- Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 14 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
-
Mar 25, 2026
- Product Code:
- POS150874
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
Dementia caregivers re-center their lives around their loved ones, giving unquantifiable time and attention as they carry a heavy emotional load.
Of worry and of grief, of course – but also, at times, of frustration, irritability, guilt, and resentment. All of it alongside heartbreak.
And as a therapist, if you don’t understand the nuance of this complicated role, you can’t be helpful.
In this session, Dr. Edward Shaw – dually trained physician and geriatric mental health counselor and author of The Dementia Care Partner’s Workbook and A Leader’s Manual for Dementia Care-Partner Support Groups – will give you a framework to assess and support the ever-changing needs of dementia caregivers. You’ll learn:
- How to develop a useful care plan for the caregiver client that decreases stress and burden
- Useful questions to help caregivers open up and shift focus to their own needs
- Tools to help caregivers adapt to changing relationships and deal with anticipatory grief
Credit
Speaker
Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA Related seminars and products
Empath Education, LLC
Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA, is dually trained as a physician and mental health counselor. He was the primary care partner for his late wife, Rebecca, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2007 at age 53 and died in 2016 after a 9-year journey. Ed was a practicing academic radiation oncologist for 23 years, specializing in the treatment of adults and children with brain cancer. In 2010, inspired by Rebecca’s journey, his medical interest shifted to dementia diagnosis and treatment, and with his additional training in mental health counseling, he founded the Memory Counseling Program in 2011, part of the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and the Sticht Center on Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The program serves individuals, couples, and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia.
He is the author of four books. Along with coauthors Deborah Barr and Dr. Gary Chapman, he wrote Keeping Love Alive as Memories Fade: The 5 Love Languages and the Alzheimer’s Journey, which describes his moving personal story of care for Rebecca coupled with an innovative use of the 5 love languages in dementia counseling. He also wrote The Dementia Care Partner’s Workbook, a support group manual and self-study guide for dementia care partners, providing understanding, education, and hope for the long journey of dementia caregiving from diagnosis through end-of-life. He has also co-authored two resources for support group leaders, A Leader’s Manual for Dementia Care Partner Support Groups and A Support Group for People Living with Dementia: The Leaders Manual.
Dr. Shaw now devotes more time to public speaking, educating, and encouraging seniors, people living with dementia and their care partners, and medical/mental health/other healthcare professionals working in the fields of aging and dementia. He is also a part-time geriatric mental health counselor at New Salem Counseling in Winston-Salem and a PESI speaker for many years, on a variety of topics related to geriatrics and dementia.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Edward Shaw is an Emeritus Professor with Wake Forest School of Medicine and receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has stock ownership in Embodied Labs. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Edward Shaw is a member of American Counseling Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the Society for Neuro-Oncology.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
Objectives
- Summarize the stressors faced by dementia caregivers.
- Identify the roles and responsibilities of dementia caregivers to inform client-centered interventions.
- Utilize an awareness of the central needs of caregivers to inform interventions focused on decreasing caregiver stress and burden.
Outline
Modern Caregiving
- Caregiver vs. care partner
- Unique sources of caregiver stress and burden
- Dementia caregivers – statistics, roles, and responsibilities
Caregiver Needs in Psychotherapeutic and Support Group Settings
- 8 central needs of caregivers
- Utilization of central needs in assessment and treatment planning
- Use of silence to facilitate caregiver sharing
- Reflective listening and validation
- Useful questions to ask to help caregivers open up
- Access to education about course of illness
- Help clients adapt to changing relationships
- Cope with anticipatory grief and ambiguous loss
- Self-care for caregivers
- Supporting caregivers to seek additional help
- Logistical support for legal, financial, and end-of-life issues
- Explore existential and spiritual issues
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Other Mental Health Professionals
Reviews
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