Power Series

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Our first Power Series has ended.

Plans are in the works to bring you more Power Series sessions soon.

Please stay tuned!

Why the Power Series?

The Power Series is a virtual structured forum that aims to help people 55+ see the power in the simple things all around us. Learning is a lifelong process and in today’s connected world, we have the opportunity to learn from individuals with vast and varied life experiences.

Every life at any age is relevant and inspiring, and when we share our unique stories, we invite others to do the same. Join the Power Series and reconnect to your passions, find the motivation to continue pursuing your aspirations, and rediscover your purpose and drive.

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What is the Power Series?

The Power Series covers six topics over six weekly sessions. Each session is facilitated by a 55+ speaker whose life has embodied the specific issue on which they will engage the group. As you gain knowledge and inspiration from our guest speakers, you will be encouraged to share your own thoughts and experiences.

The Power Series program is delivered via Zoom and creates an opportunity for participants to learn about Physical Health, Spiritual Health, Story Health, Social Health, Cognitive Health, and Emotional Health. Each week, you will hear from experts in the field and learn strategies and tips on how to set and maintain goals, rediscover your passions, and create a path towards a purposeful and fulfilling life. Participants will be encouraged to connect with others through facilitated small group discussions within breakout rooms on the virtual platform. Our aim is to alleviate the negative effects of social isolation and/or loneliness through the power of engagement, renewed interest, connection and purpose. There may be the opportunity for projects and activities, based on the particular area of health and the goals set forth by the participants themselves.

Each person who registers will receive a Zoom link to attend all 6 sessions of the Power Series, along with detailed instructions and additional information. All sessions will be recorded.

Limit: 150 participants

Come join our community!

Series Topics and Details

Click on a photo to learn more about the speaker.

Physical Health: The Power of Action

March 3, 12-1pm EST

Rita H. Losee, ScD, RN

Speaker: Rita Losee, ScD, RN

Physical Fitness does not need to be an unreachable goal. People with varying levels of fitness can improve their overall health and wellness through goal setting, motivational triggers, and by having a lifestyle mindset.

Spiritual Health: The Power of Spiritual Aging

March 10, 12-1pm EST

Dr. Joanna Seibert

Speaker: Rev. Joanna Seibert, MD

Spirituality is a personal practice that considers individual beliefs to help guide one’s understanding of and connection to the greater community. Explore strategies for living in the present, finding your supple heart, and understanding ways to honor and forgive those you have loved.

Story Health: The Power of Who We Are

March 10, 12-1pm EST

Diane Atwood

Speaker: Diane Atwood, Catching Health

Story-telling has been used for thousands of years, as a way to pass down knowledge and history. Every person has a story that is worth telling. Explore ways to tell your story by learning about basic story elements and considering a variety of story prompts to get you started.

Social Health: The Power of Connections

March 24, 12-1pm EST

Patricia Oh, LMSW, PhD

Speaker: Patricia Oh, LMSW, PhD

Poor quality relationships and limited interactions with others not only affect our feelings and sense of worth, they cause physiological damage to our bodies in the form of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, depression, and ultimately, early death. Explore ways to maintain solid connections with others, especially during these times through a Social Connection Plan.

Cognitive Health: The Power of Lifelong Learning

March 31, 12-1pm EST

Nicci Kobritz

Speaker: Nicci Kobritz, Geriatric Nurse Practitioner

Lifelong learning is very important to improving cognition. Cognitive function includes the ability to think, reason and judge. It also depends on the health and fitness of the brain. Explore how to adapt important lifestyle interventions known to improve brain fitness while optimizing the benefits of lifelong learning.

Emotional Health: The Power of Resilience

April 7, 12-1pm EST

Suellen Nadeau, PMHCNS, BC,CWP, CMHIMP, RYT

Speaker: Suellen Nadeau, PMHCNS, BC,CWP, CMHIMP, RYT

Stress can have a significant impact on one's physical, mental, and spiritual health. Explore practical strategies to negate the feelings associated with stress through mindfulness skills and strength-based practices.

Learn more about the Institute for Integrative Aging →

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Rita Losee

Rita H. Losee, ScD, RN

When she was thirty – a few weeks back – Rita read Helen Keller’s words: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Those eight words changed her life.

A happily married Massachusetts mom, she instantly committed to living a life of adventure. Among her subsequent adventures, she has

  • Climbed 19,367 foot Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.
  • Completed the Hawaii Ironman in 12 hours, 45 minutes and 27 seconds.
  • Solo hiked the 2,167 mile Appalachian Trail.
  • Written and published many articles and books.
  • Earned a doctorate from Boston University.
  • Been an adoring Gramsie to 4 grandkids.
  • Fully recovered from debilitating illness that turned her into a “couch slouch” – for years!

Now fully recovered and living the life of a Soaring Senior, she delights in helping others thrive, physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and financially.

Recently, she published Soaring Seniors: Stories, Steps and Strategies for Living Full-Out after Fifty, Sixty, Seventy…  Her intention for the book is to change the cultural conversation in the US about being a senior, currently seen as being about 4 Ds, diminishment, deterioration, disease and death. She maintains that seniority can, and should, be a time for living full-out.

Publications + Blogs

Soaring Senior: Pandemic won’t stop 78-year-old Bath woman from 272-mile hike – read the story in Portland Press Herald.
www.soaringseniors.com
www.LifeWave.com/DrRita
www.Facebook.com/RitaLosee
www.Facebook.com/SoaringSeniors
www.facebook.com/HealthProfessionalsforFarmacology/
Soaring Seniors: Stories, Steps and Strategies for Living Full-Out After Fifty, Sixty, Seventy
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/78-year-old-mainer-is-hiking-400-miles-to-raise-money-for-food-bank/97-7d08b266-9ed1-4b4d-bc3d-aba6ce1948b6

Dr. Joanna Seibert

Dr. Joanna Seibert

Dr. Joanna Seibert is an emeritus professor of radiology and pediatrics at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences and has been an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas for twenty years. She is presently assigned to St. Mark’s Little Rock.

Dr. Seibert is the author of numerous books on spiritual healing. She and her husband, Dr. Robert Seibert, were formerly Arkansas’ representatives to the National Cathedral in Washington. Dr. Joanna Seibert has been named one of the top 100 women in Arkansas by Arkansas Business for several years, as well as being on the list of outstanding doctors in the country for many years. Recently Dr. Seibert was named to the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame.

Dr. Seibert and her husband have three grown children and six grandchildren and have lived in Little Rock, AR for forty years.

Publications + Blogs

Blog, profile, sermons, books
Facebook
Church on Facebook where I serve as ordained deacon Episcopal Church
Church where I serve as minister
Emeritus professor of radiology and pediatrics (Univ of Arkansas)
Emeritus professor of radiology and pediatrics (Arkansas Children’s Hospitals)
Past President of the Society for Pediatric Radiology

Diane Atwood

Diane Atwood

Diane Atwood has been sharing stories about health and wellness for more than 30 years, first as a reporter on WCSH6 and then as the marketing and public relations manager for Northern Light Mercy Hospital. She remains committed to health reporting that makes a difference and does so through her award-winning Catching Health blog and podcast. She also contributes to Bangor Daily News, as well as Turner Publishing’s community newspapers and quarterly publication Maine Boomers. Before COVID struck, she was traveling throughout Maine interviewing people 60 and above about their lives and perspectives on aging. Inspired by their enthusiasm about sharing their stories, and realizing that many people were interested in documenting their lives with an audio record for their families, she has launched a new business called Catching Your Memories.

Publications + Blogs

https://dianeatwood.com/
Catching Health with Diane Atwood (Blog and Podcast)
Bangor Daily News
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
MaineBiz Article
The Retirement Success in Maine podcast
Racing, Concussions and the Road to Recovery USM event

Patricia Oh

Patricia Oh, LMSW, PhD

Patricia Oh, PhD, LMSW, works with communities to develop local environments that make it easier for older people to be fully engaged in community life and enjoy the best possible health and well-being. Based on her work with communities, she contributed a book chapter, Designing Age-Friendly Environments as a Strategy for Enhancing Social Connectedness, to the recently published Social Isolation of Older Adults: Strategies to Bolster Health and Well-Being and is the lead author on the AARP Roadmap to Livability Series and Rural Livability Report. She works with the UMaine Center on Aging as a Program Manager and with AARP Maine/Livable as an age-friendly consultant.

Nicci Kobritz

Nicci Kobritz

Nurse practitioner and geriatric specialist, Nicci Kobritz has more than three decades of experience in developing and managing health care services. Nicci has received awards and recognition for her home care services and her volunteer work. She writes periodically for Home Health Care Management & Practice, Aspen Publishers.

In Maine, Nicci founded the Expanded Child Health Service, a rural pediatric clinic selected by the Academy of Pediatrics as a national model; she then developed a state model for hospital-based child neglect programs and served in Maine Gov. John R. McKernan’s cabinet for health care.

Ms. Kobritz, in partnership with the Roskamp Institute, developed Sci-brain in order to integrate the latest scientific research on strengthening memory with advanced client care. Sci-Brain has now expanded its capabilities through Center for Brain Health, a new company operated by Julio Cantero, MD.

Publications + Blogs

www.youthfulaginghomecare.com
www.thecbh.com

Suellen Nadeau

Suellen Nadeau, PMHCNS, BC,CWP, CMHIMP, RYT

Suellen is the chair of the Integrative Health and Wellness Sciences at Saint Joseph’s College’s ( SJC) Institute for Integrative Aging. In her SJC role as interdisciplinary faculty for the last 9 years, she has developed and taught 16 different Holistic Health courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Suellen is committed to offering her clients and students the most effective, evidence-based tools to achieve their highest level of wellness. In following that pursuit, she has become an Advanced Practice Nurse, an Expressive Arts Mental Health Therapist, a Certified Wellness Practitioner, a Certified Mental Health Integrative Medicine Provider, a Registered Yoga Teacher, and a Koru Mindfulness Teacher. She sees herself as a bridge between Western and Eastern Medicine, utilizing the best of both paradigms to practice the art and science of Integrative/ Lifestyle Medicine that heals bodies, minds and spirits. She was a 2016 recipient of SJC’s Inspire People and Change the World award. She credits Mindfulness Based Practices for significant healing in her own life.