CAREGIVERS
“This is the Hospital Emergency Room calling. Your husband has been in an accident. Please call us.”
It is a call that changes everything. My husband sustained a mild traumatic brain injury in a cycling accident, and life as we knew it shifted in an instant. What followed was a long and often isolating journey of trying to create a sense of normal in a situation where normal no longer existed. To navigate the unknown, I leaned into my strengths by researching, asking questions, and seeking out the practitioners and supports that could help guide his recovery. Over time, I learned how to advocate more effectively and move through complex systems with greater clarity.
Years later, when I faced my own serious health diagnosis, I drew on those same skills. That moment became the beginning of Standing Up 4 ME, where I recognized the importance of advocating not only for others, but for myself. Today, I support and empower caregivers navigating the realities of caregiving. I help them find clarity, build resilience, and move forward with greater confidence.
Rosalyn Fast
KEYNOTE 1
The Silent Code of the Caregiver: Navigating Caregiving Without Losing Yourself
Caregiving often asks people to adapt to constant change while managing emotional, physical, and logistical demands that few others fully see. Many caregivers quietly carry this responsibility while continuing to work, support their families, and hold everyday life together.
In this keynote, Rosalyn Fast shares lessons drawn from nearly three decades as a spousal caregiver navigating life after brain injury. Through personal experience and practical insight, she helps caregivers reconnect with their inner resilience, navigate complex systems with greater clarity, and protect their own wellbeing along the journey.
Participants leave feeling understood, supported, and better equipped to sustain themselves while caring for those they love.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will reconnect with their own resilience and gain language to better understand the realities of caregiving.
- Participants will learn practical ways to navigate healthcare systems, family dynamics, and ongoing uncertainty.
- Participants will explore strategies to protect their personal energy and sustain themselves through the long journey of caregiving.
KEYNOTE 2
Caregiving often involves carrying responsibilities that many people never fully see. Managing appointments, navigating systems, balancing emotions, making constant decisions, and trying to hold everything together can quietly affect energy, wellbeing, and resilience over time.
In this keynote, Workplace Wellbeing Strategist and Caregiver Advocate Rosalyn Fast explores the concept of invisible load through the lens of caregiving. Drawing on nearly three decades of lived caregiving experience and professional insight, she helps audiences better understand the hidden pressures caregivers navigate every day and why these experiences are so often overlooked.
Participants will leave with greater awareness of how caregiving impacts emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing, along with practical strategies to support resilience, communication, and sustainable caregiving while continuing to care for themselves along the way.
Learning Outcomes:
- Participants will learn how invisible load affects caregivers emotionally, mentally, and physically.
- Participants will explore practical ways to support resilience and wellbeing while navigating the ongoing demands of caregiving.
- Participants will gain insight into the importance of acknowledgement, communication, and sustainable support within caregiving relationships.
Attending Rosalyn’s workshop, “Finding the Strength Within Caregiving,” was a great experience for me.
The workshop was interactive and well-organized, with enough time for us to reflect on our own experiences, through a series of thoughtfully crafted questions. These questions gave me valuable insights that will really help me in my caregiving journey.
N.T
WORKSHOP
Stand Up 4 ME™
A Transformative Workshop for Caregivers
Format: Five session workshop series. Each session is two hours.
Caregiving often asks us to give more of ourselves than we ever imagined possible. Over time many caregivers quietly place their own needs aside while navigating complex systems, emotional strain, and constant responsibility.
Stand Up 4 ME™ is a supportive and practical workshop created to help caregivers reconnect with their strength, voice, and direction while continuing to care for the people who matter most in their lives.
Through reflection, guided discussion, and practical tools, participants explore ways to navigate caregiving with greater clarity, confidence, and self advocacy. The workshop creates space for caregivers to pause, strengthen their internal resources, and chart a sustainable course forward for themselves as individuals while continuing to care for those they love.
What Participants Will Gain
- Session 1 Finding the Strength Within Discovering the depth of your internal strengths.
- Session 2 Laying the Groundwork Filling your resource toolbox with essential tools for your journey.
- Session 3 Navigating Systems Stepping forward with confidence when navigating services and supports.
- Session 4 Energy Management Unlocking the power within to sustain your energy and wellbeing.
- Session 5 Your Caregiver Compass: Charting the Course Forward Creating a path that supports both your caregiving role and your own life.
- This workshop will help you stand up for yourself while continuing to care for others. You are not alone. Let’s navigate this journey together.
- Movement Practices to Support Balance and Resilience
- Tai Chi Based Movement – Participants learn to slow down and move with intention, discovering how small adjustments in posture and breath can restore stability and calm the nervous system.
- Over time this practice helps develop; Balance and grounding, Calm focus under pressure, Adaptability in movement and daily life.
- Many participants notice that as their physical balance improves, their ability to remain steady in stressful situations also grows.
- Yoga Inspired Alignment and Breath – Sintony is a gentle yoga inspired practice that focuses on alignment, breath, and restoring harmony between body and mind.
- Rather than pushing the body into difficult poses, the practice encourages listening to the body and responding with awareness. Small shifts in posture and breathing can release tension, restore energy, and support overall wellbeing.
- The focus is not perfection. The focus is awareness, balance, and integration.
Session Options
Session Options
Movement sessions can be adapted to the needs of the group and may include
- Caregiver wellbeing and support sessions
- Conference experiential sessions
- Retreats and leadership gatherings
- Private or small group instruction
- Community classes
- Sessions can be delivered in person or virtually.
The Finding the Strength Within workshop combined the meaningful exchange of lived experience, with insights that inspired unexpected self-reflection, in a safe and inclusive environment.
Interspersed with the engaging dialogue, the group was taught breathing and meditation techniques that I believe made the workshop even more resonant.
Above all, it was the thought-provoking questions that made each participant dig deep. This workshop is a powerful tool for caregivers, and a reminder that we need to care for ourselves as well.
Brenda M
