Paymaneh Ghaffari
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Service area: Taos, New Mexico
Contact: 575-779-0139
Website: www.sacredjourneyservices.com/
Paymaneh is a practicing buddhist of 9 years and director of a buddhist centre in Taos, New Mexico. They are a Tibetan Buddhist Centre in the Gelug lineage of Mahayana buddhism. Dying and death have been well-studied in most buddhist lineages which spurred her interest in this life transition. She is currently working on developing a death and dying group within their membership to help support each other during that important time.
Paymaneh became inspired to help those who are close to death and their families after two very meaningful experiences.
The first one was when her mother at her children's school had a massive asthma attack and became brain dead. When her husband managed to get her back home, an email went out to the parents about the situation asking if anybody might like to help. Although she didn’t know the family, I reached out and helped by doing whatever was needed, i.e. cooking, cleaning, helping with the kids, sitting with the mum and soothing her by brushing hair or reading stories etc.It was gratifying being useful and she felt very comfortable in that role.
The second experience was when a mother from the school learned that her 3 year old son had an inoperable tumor on his brain stem. He wasn’t given much time to live and died shortly after that diagnosis. Paymaneh went often to their house to just sit and talk to the mum. This seemed helpful to her, and she was glad to be of service.
Since these initial experiences she has spent time with others who are dying and always feel an incredible connection and sense of calm. She feels happy that any help she can offer is very meaningful for all involved.
Her strengths in this work are her abilities to be open and accepting with others, a very kind disposition based within a strong sense of compassion, a very grounded personality, and the ability to hold space for others and their unique challenges as they transition. Paymaneh feels that through her life experiences which include being born in London, England (of Iranian heritage), living in Iran until she was about 3-4 years old, being raised in England after that, in boarding schools and then moving to the States has given her a very multicultural perspective on life and created a wide ranging perspective on what it means to die with dignity.
The work she has done through the Conscious Dying Institute has really helped her learn more about the whole process of dying and has really helped her look within herself and welcome all the emotions that have come up around the different activities we have all participated in. This will serve her in being much more aware of what a person might be going through when they know they have a limited time to live. Completing three Vision maps has really helped her understand how to sit down with a client and use basic and pure listening to help understand and be of most benefit to that person. Communicating on different levels is such a huge part of this work.
Paymaneh is able to support anybody who has a terminal diagnosis at any stage.
Services Offered:
‘Best Three Months’ end-of-life care and coaching and planning with family patient and coordination with hospice/medical care providers
Vigil planning and implementing