Being Present for a Friend with Mental Illness (Flamekeeper Series #1) [public]

​A conversation and workshop with Rabbi Jeremy Sher, Mental Health Chaplain at UCSF

​This is Part 1 of the Flamekeeper Series.

​Navigating a friendship in the presence of mental illness can be difficult and fraught. When our values call for care and presence in the relationship, we might face challenging questions:

• ​How might I play the role of providing a caring presence that is distinct from the role of treatment or therapy?

• ​How might I be empathetic to my friend’s experienced reality without feeling that I’m enabling unhealthy or ungrounded thinking?

• ​How might I balance care for my friend with care for myself?

​To explore these questions, we turn to insights from mental health chaplaincy. In a hospital setting, chaplains are professionals dedicated to the art of being present to anyone in the hospital, providing emotional and existential support regardless of the careseeker’s religious beliefs or affiliations. Interfaith chaplains go through rigorous, intensive training — working deeply on themselves — to be truly present to the experience of those they care for without judgment or agenda.

​Our local guest practitioner Rabbi Jeremy Sher is a board-certified chaplain serving Mount Zion Hospital and Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital at UCSF. He completed his Clinical Pastoral Education residency at UCSF and internship at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston. Jeremy also serves as Rabbi for the San Francisco Night Ministry, where he produces Open Shabbat services with the unhoused and marginally housed community in the Mission. His publications include "Chaplain, Can You Do an Exorcism?" in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin and a chapter on nonreligious spiritual care in an upcoming book on decolonizing chaplaincy. He has his Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

​We will also be joined by Kylie Yorke, a volunteer support group facilitator for the National Alliance on Mental Illness San Francisco and clinical psychology doctoral candidate. The session will be moderated by Seanan Fong, Founding Director of the SF Contemplarium.

​We will have a lively fireside chat in the first hour, followed by an interactive skill-building workshop in the second hour.

​​🕕 Agenda

• ​​2–2:10pm: Arrive & Check-in

• ​2:10pm: Fireside Chat begins

• ​​3pm: Q&A

• ​3:15: Interactive Workshop

​​📍 Finding 550 Laguna

​​We'll meet in 550 Laguna (the corner of Hayes & Laguna). Once you arrive, go down the stairs to the basement level to enter space, check in, and please take your shoes off at the door.

​​​We are grateful to partner with The Commons to host this event in their incredible space. The Commons is a modern-day town square for communal meaning-making, personal discovery, and self-expression in the heart of San Francisco. Learn more about The Commons here.

​​About the SF Contemplarium

​​​​Presented by the San Francisco Contemplarium, a neighborhood institution creating space for honoring our human journey.