Join other Women as all share their experiences related to the journey of aging!

Join other Women as all share their experiences related to the journey of aging! image

Wisdom Journey is a small group for women over 50. We come together on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 2 pm until 3:30 pm to share our experiences related to this journey of aging. Conversations are wide-ranging, covering topics related to the past, present and the future, loss and resilience, recognizing commonalities and differences. There is no advice or fixing, simply sharing of experiences from a place of deep presence. We learn from one another as we listen, plumbing our own depths to discover what lies within us, while recognizing the beauty and healing of truly seeing others and being seen.

This is an ongoing open group, facilitated by Rev. Barbara Benton. Click here if you have questions and/or to be added to the email list for notification prior to each meeting.

Facilitator:

Rev. Barbara Benton

Barbara is a Minister at All Souls with a variety of contributions to our community. She is a Meditation leader, the manager of the greeter team for Meditation services and manager of the Care Team, leader of the Wisdom Journey of Aging group and a co-leader of the Big Talk and the Reading to Understand groups. She has recently retired after 30 years as a mental health counselor and is also a volunteer for Age Well and the VT Afghan Alliance.

Back in the day, she was a crew chief on fighter jets in the USAF, then graduated from The University of New Hampshire with a degree in Environmental Conservation. She lived off the grid for 14 years, worked as a hiking guide, and at age 40, returned to school to earn a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. Then in the early 2000's, she worked at the University of Vermont, in the Risk Management Department, ultimately as the Laboratory Safety Program Manager for the chemical safety program in their 550 laboratories. While at UVM she was also active in Staff Appreciation and Diversity/Inclusion programs as a volunteer, and maintained a small private psychotherapy practice for 13 years before returning to private practice and clinical administration in 2013.

Meanwhile, she has hiked all 67 mountains over 4000' in New England and about a quarter of the highest Adirondacks peaks. In Europe she has hiked in the Alps and the Dolomites. She is married to fellow congregant Gary De Carolis and is super happy to be a grandmother! In her spare time she does wicked hard strength training, reads fiction and nonfiction books, writes and is an artist in various ways. She has a particular interest in Buddhism and especially values the intersection between psychology, spirituality and kindness.