ANNUAL CE MINDFULNESS RETREAT
CULTIVATING FORGIVENESS OF OURSELVES AND OTHERS:
A mindfulness retreat for veterinarians, veterinary technicians/technologists, staff, and veterinary students
Thursday, July 9, 2026 – Sunday, July 12, 2026
Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, Barrington, Illinois
COURSE INFORMATION:
Forgiveness is considered to be foundational to good mental health.
Veterinary medical professionals often find it difficult to forgive themselves and others, especially in a professional culture in which perfectionism is dominant and mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.
In this year’s retreat, we will look at the concept of forgiveness through several lenses and consider the following questions:
- What is forgiveness and how have cultures and value systems addressed it?
- Are some events unforgivable?
- How do we as clinicians who work with patients and clients forgive ourselves and others when mistakes happen?
- How do we cultivate forgiveness in our intimate relationships?
We will consider how mindfulness and self compassion can be powerful allies and help us move through the world with clarity and kindness to ourselves and others
VIN Foundation is inviting interested members of the veterinary profession the opportunity to take time and participate in a few days of didactics and dialogues that help participants return to our professional and personal lives with greater clarity, meaning and gratitude. The didactics will be a combination of group discussion and speaker presentation.
While formal meditation training is not a requirement, in order for this retreat to be most beneficial, familiarity with meditation and yoga practice is highly recommended. Participants should be able to hold a quiet position for 30 minutes, several times daily.
Retreat participants should plan to attend all didactics, group discussions, yoga, art and meditation sessions. There will be ample opportunity for private time, so that participants are able to enjoy the beautiful facilities and grounds of the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Ill.
The 2026 retreat will open for general registration on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. If you are interested in receiving notifications about this and other VIN Foundation Vets4Vets® programs, you may sign up for updates.
ACCREDITATION: This course is pending approval for 8 hours of continuing education credit for veterinarians and veterinary technicians/technologists in jurisdictions that recognize RACE, NY State, and CVPM approval.
COURSE INFORMATION/LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
LECTURE 1: Setting The Stage: What Is Forgiveness and Why Is It Important
Presenter: Michele Gaspar, DVM, MA, LCPC
CE Credits: 2
Description: Michele Gaspar is a veterinarian and psychotherapist. She is a member of the Vets4Vets® program of the VIN Foundation and provides one-on-one support to veterinarians and veterinary students with personal and professional challenges. Michele has had a mindfulness practice since 1972 and facilitates an annual mindfulness meditation course on VIN, as well as coordinating the annual mindfulness retreat. In addition to her VIN Foundation activities, she has a private psychotherapy practice in Chicago providing mental health services to physicians and other health care providers.
In this lecture, we will consider various definitions of forgiveness that have arisen throughout history. We also will consider what forgiveness is and is not and how forgiveness is fundamental to good mental health by preventing rumination, estrangement and reactivity. This lecture will address which events, if any, are unforgivable and how those of us who are injured by others can move forward without minimizing the harm done and yet moving forward.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Attendees will be able to define what forgiveness is and how various cultural and religious systems have defined it throughout history.
- Attendees will be able to describe how forgiveness and reconciliation have been paired by many cultural and religious systems and how contemporary understanding has broadened our understanding of the role, necessity and spectrum of reconciliation.
- Attendees will be able to discuss the types of betrayals, crimes and transgressions that have traditionally been thought to be unforgivable and how contemporary psychological and legal understanding has qualified them.
LECTURE 2: Forgiveness: How Do We Get There?
Presenter: Rabbi Michael Oblath, PhD
CE Credits: 2
Description: Michael Oblath received a PhD in Biblical History from the University of California at Berkeley and is a retired Reform Rabbi who lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He is an annual presenter at the VIN Mindfulness Meditation retreats and his lectures are geared to making ancient texts and narratives relevant to 21st century challenges.
Forgiveness is a term that is found in every facet of society, be it religious or secular or political.. It has universal usage and application. “Forgiveness” appears to be defined, or more appropriately, described in dozens of easily usable statements…most often specifically related to each individual experience. “Forgiveness” is a two-way street, often perhaps easily applied to perceived minor instances of insult, offense, hurt (physical or emotional). It is also easily applied to perceived major, severe instances of the same circumstances.
This session will attempt to discuss and define “forgiveness” as well as to understand its place in a more complex cycle of “sin, repentance, and atonement.” How do these concepts work together to permit healing? Perhaps it is much more of a contextual concept. Is there a difference between forgiveness involved in a verbal insult vs that involved with the injury of a physical assault.
Finally, we will address rituals of self-forgiveness and how they can be applied to veterinary clinicians
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Attendees will be able to describe how forgiveness needs to be understood in terms of an individual experience and how it is often connected to sin-atonement-repentance.
- Attendees will be able to suggest ways in which forgiveness can be more than dyadic and provide historical examples of each.
- Attendees will be able to discuss ways in which veterinary clinicians can develop their own rituals of self forgiveness.
LECTURE 3: Forgiveness In Intimate Relationships: How Is It Possible After Betrayal?
Presenter: Michele Gaspar, DVM, MA, LCPC
CE Credits: 1
Description: Our intimate relationships, including marriage, parenting and deep friendships are places where betrayal and hurt often are felt most keenly. Many of us still harbor the hurt of childhood and adolescent friendships that fractured and have left permanent scars on our hearts and minds. Adult partnerships can fracture and many find it difficult to move on without continuing a cycle of resentment and revenge. In this lecture, we will consider the work of Shahrzad Siassi, PhD, a psychoanalyst who has written extensively on forgiveness, especially her book, “Forgiveness In Intimate Relationships.” Dr. Siassi creates a path forward towards forgiveness that takes into account the psychological impact of forgiveness for the individual and the relationship.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Attendees will be able to discuss Dr. Siassi’s psychoanalytic frame of forgiveness and its historical and theoretical foundations.
- Attendees will be able to point to differences in how forgiveness might appear depending on the particular relationship between two individuals.
- Attendees will be able to describe specific ways in which forgiveness can take place with those closest to us and ways in which forgiveness is thwarted.
LECTURE 4: Forgiveness Of Ourselves and Others As Clinicians: A One Medicine Model
Presenter: Mahesh C. Patel, MD. CT.
CE Credits: 3
Description: Mahesh Patel is a physician, board-certified in Infectious Diseases. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California-Berkeley, from which he graduated with the highest distinction, and completed his MD at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Patel completed a residency in Pediatrics at the Indiana University College of Medicine and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He currently is an attending physician in Infectious Diseases at the University of Illinois Chicago Hospitals, where he works with transplant patients; coordinates a telemedicine program for incarcerated individuals with AIDS; and teaches first-year medical students enrolled at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He is the author of numerous journal articles and medical textbook chapters.
Veterinarians and physicians both work in cultures where perfectionism is expected, while at the same time working with the reality of biological systems (our patients) who often confound our best efforts. Mistakes can take place for myriad reasons and when they do, catastrophic outcomes can result. Careers and lives can be upended by mistakes and increasingly veterinarians and physicians feel they must practice “defensive medicine” as a buffer against legal action. In this lecture and discussion, we will find the commonalities shared between veterinarians and physicians who struggle with forgiveness of ourselves, colleagues, supporting staff and patients and clients.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Attendees will be able to describe ways in which human medical school and residency training prepares physicians-in-training for self-forgiveness and how, despite this training, specific challenges still exist for the individual health care provider.
- Attendees will be able to develop an understanding of how the increasingly litigious interactions between patients and physicians has impacted the practice of medicine and be able to describe the similarities and differences between human and veterinary medicine in this regard.
- Attendees will be able to understand how physician colleagues support and fail to support each other in clinical practice and describe parallel processes in veterinary medicine.
TUITION: $795
Tuition includes a private room, all meals and refreshments, daily yoga, and all group activities.
All prices are listed in US dollars.
Once you register for the course, you will receive an email with instructions including course attendance, course materials, and requirements for earning the CE certificate.
Enrollment has closed.
- Enrollment qualifications: VIN Foundation CE courses are open to veterinarians, veterinary students, and veterinary support staff
- Each enrollee must be able to receive emails from @vinfoundation.org addresses. Email is our major form of communication with participants; personal emails are highly recommended rather than clinic/hospital email addresses.
- For further assistance call 888-616-6506 or email [email protected]. Please include the course title, your full name, and contact information in your correspondence.