About the Directors

Herman Meijburg

For many years my career has involved the field of death and dying. During my clinical pastoral training I worked in a large Dutch hospital where I became deeply involved in the care of the terminally ill. The religious and ethical aspects of end of life issues and ‘dying well’ formed the focus of educational programmes I developed as the Dean of a School of Nursing in The Hague, the Netherlands. In 1983 I became the Director of the Department of Health Care Ethics of the Dutch Hospital Association where I developed and introduced models for ethical consultation in health care institutions throughout the country. Clinical ethics committees are now well established in the Netherlands and make an important contribution to enhance the quality of health care delivery.
I am one of the founding fathers of the Dutch Association of Bioethics as well as the International Association of Bioethics. In the middle of the 1990s I started my own consultancy practice and developed new educational programmes for caregivers working in the area of palliative care with terminally ill patients. I am an international speaker and holder of workshops. I have written numerous articles about ethical quandaries in health care, euthanasia, organ donation and transplants, and palliative care, in both Dutch and English. I am a theologian and health care ethicist, an “ADEC certified’ thanatologist (death educator) and a loss and grief counsellor. I am also on the Board of the International Work Group on Death Dying and Bereavement. Recently I have become the Chair of the Canterbury Branch of the National Association for Loss and Grief (NALAG). I am the co-founder and Director of the Centre For Loss and Healing and the creator of Labyrinth Celesta.

My career decisions and professional activities are directed toward:

Improving health care systems, raising corporate awareness through clarification of prevailing norms and values; Increasing conceptual sensitivity among health care professionals through the application of ethical insights, consultation and education; Fostering cultural maturation around issues of illness, aging, care giving, morality, spirituality, death and dying; Serving those individuals and their families who, in their time of need, request help coping with illness, death, loss and grief.

Sarah-Alice Miles
B.A, LL.B, Grad.Dipl.Psych, GNZ (committee member)

I began my professional life as a banking lawyer, working in the investment banking industry in Europe. Consequently I have worked with a diverse range of cultural groups, customer groups, large and small organizations in both the public and private sectors. After ten years of organizational development, change management and facilitation I began looking for something more. I have found that ‘something’ in the work I do with people. I am now a counsellor and psychotherapist (Gestalt) trainee and committee member of Gestalt New Zealand. Gestalt therapy enables me to explore a client’s situation through enhancing awareness of how they relate to their own circumstances as well as to others. This enables clients to develop ways to expand choices in life to meet their changing needs. My focus is on helping clients to help themselves toward improving their effectiveness and satisfaction in their relationships and life generally.

I am the co-founder and Director of the Centre for Loss and Healing Ltd. and as such I work with individuals, couples and groups in a variety of fields related to loss and grief. I also have a number of specific research interests including: therapy in relation to bereavement, abortion, adoption, labyrinths as health tools, mediation, dispute resolution and restorative justice.