Stephen Jenkinson

"Not success. Not growth. Not happiness.
The cradle of your love of life is death."
  - Stephen Jenkinson, subject of the acclaimed NFB film Griefwalker

Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, RSW, is a spiritual activist and teacher who is revolutionizing dying in North America. He has Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). After an apprenticeship to a musician storyteller he worked with dying people and their families, with grieving people and with those unsure how to grieve. As a programme director in a major Canadian hospital, an assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school and an educator and advocate in the helping professions, spiritual activist Stephen Jenkinson consulted to palliative care and hospice organizations.

He is the author of How it All Could Be: A work book for dying people and those who love them, Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life - a live recorded teaching, and Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation, and contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies.

Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of Griefwalker, a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film , a lyrical, poetic portrait of Stephen’s work with dying people. Griefwalker shows Stephen teaching the redemptive power of deep love for life, when life glimpses its end.

Stephen presents the two year apprenticeship People of Silver & Salt: Orphan Wisdom School at Hollyhock May 20 - 24 & October 27 -31, 2013 as well as Old Time: Learning Elderhood, August 25 - 30, 2013 at Hollyhock.