In the midst of caregiving, we often fail to prioritize ourselves out of necessity and are faced with overwhelming stress, fatigue, and burnout. When we do it alone, we often don’t have time to dedicate to our self-care, hobbies and even routine personal care and can reach a breaking point that leaves us at risk, along with our loved one. Our caregiver workshops will offer peer support, therapeutic exercises, psychoeducation and resource exploration.
These workshops are a space to bring together members with similar lived experiences to support each other and an opportunity to heal and recharge. By providing this in-person group, we hope to give caregivers a dedicated space to prioritize their wellbeing.
This group is being co-facilitated by Meryl Lammers, a board licensed Music Therapist and clinical intern, and Chris Klem, our Intake Coordinator who has nearly twenty years of experience in the aging field.
Dates: Every 1st Tuesday of the Month (Beginning January 7, 2025)
Time: 10AM-12PM
Location: In-Person (524 N Providence Rd. Media, PA 19063)
Begins January 7, 2025: Free Session
Cost After January Session: $50/session (Sliding Scale Options Available)
About Our Facilitators
Chris Klem has both professional and personal experience navigating the complexities of caregiving. Having spent almost twenty years in the aging field, Chris worked closely with caregivers who were experiencing burnout, hardship, and stress to create care plans that both prioritized patient safety and caregiver well-being. Chris also provided full time caregiving for two family members spanning six years and has experience navigating hospice, end of life decisions, dementia, guardianship proceedings and the emotional toll of being a Power of Attorney and Executor of the Estate.
Learn more about Chris’ Training and Coaching Experience HERE
Meryl Lammers is one of our clinical interns who will be co-facilitating this group between January 2025 – April 2025. Meryl Lammers (she/her/hers) is a graduate student at Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and has been a practicing board-certified music therapist since 2005. Meryl has 20 years of experience helping people navigate grief, loss, end of life care, substance use disorders, trauma, and has worked with people of all ages on the Autism Spectrum and those with a wide range of developmental and cognitive abilities.
Her early connection to music, song-writing, performance, and the positive emotional and spiritual effects that music had on her personally led Meryl into pursuing music therapy as a career. She is now expanding her knowledge of experiential and somatic therapies at the Phoenix Center, including EMDR, IFS, and psychodrama. Meryl is a life-long student and believes that learning and expanding her skill set will help to continue to meet the individual needs of the people she serves.
Meryl’s humanistic, relational, and strengths-based approach to psychotherapy and the creative healing arts is rooted in the belief that each person holds the innate power to heal, grow, and flourish, and that the therapist is a guide to help navigate the process, whether it’s through experiential, creative, or somatic experiences. Coming from a trauma-informed lens, Meryl also understands the impact that traumatic experiences can have and is dedicated to providing individualized care.
