Hello,

As a woman, a passionate lover of life, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, a friend, a voracious and curious reader and student, a teacher, therapist, and author, I believe the following to be true: Women yearn personally and communally for connection across time -- and space.

We care deeply about the past. We yearn to know our personal history & to know ourselves as part of history; to locate ourselves in the generations - to have a place - to belong.

We yearn to know that our present lives have value and significance, to experience our wisdom and have it witnessed by others, to heal ourselves and our relationships, and to understand our spiritual connection and purpose.

As for the future, we are committed as women to making a difference. We want to be remembered, to replace destructive patterns with healthy ones for future generations, to pass on our values and life wisdom, to contribute our wisdom, service, and money, to bless the future: family, the human family and our planet.

My beliefs and my personal life path as a woman, a therapist and educator, have led me to the focus of legacy, inspired by the ethical will of tradition. It is my dream that all women will find their voices and values, and will document their beliefs and blessings for a world in dire need of our wisdom, experience and love.

May all your legacies be blessings,

Rachael Freed

Read two recent articles written about legacy work in: MinnesotaGoodAge and The NewMexico Link

See Rachael's Programs and Publications List

Rachael Freed Biography

Legacy Founder Rachael Freed, MSW, LMFT taught English, served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, and practiced psycho- therapy for thirty years. Freed is a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. She is one of the 'experts' whose work with the ethical will is included on Dr. Andrew Weil’s integrative health web sites. In 2006 she earned a Graduate Certificate in Jewish Education with highest honors from Gratz College.

Recipient of numerous awards for her work, Freed was honored with a grant at Norcroft, A Writing Retreat for Women. She read for over 15 years as a volunteer for the Minnesota State Services for the Blind. After serving on boards of several organizations, she is currently the volunteer Adult Learning Chair at Temple Israel, Minneapolis.

Freed is a pioneer in the field of family-centered care in life-threatening and chronic illness. She founded the first Minnesota hospital-based program for families of the dying in 1973 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Minneapolis. She created Heartmates® to provide emotional-spiritual recovery resources and services for families of heart patients. Freed wrote and produced the Hugo Award-winning video-series, Portrait of the Heartmate. She is the author of Heartmates: A Guide for the Spouse and Family of the Heart Patient and the interactive Heartmates Journal: A Companion for Partners of People with Serious Illness.

Introduced to the ethical will in the early 1990s, Freed was inspired to transform the ancient tradition to empower 21st century women to preserve their voices and values for future generations. She developed a teaching model 'legacy circles' to guide adult learners and wrote Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs and Blessings to Future Generations. She is also the author of The Women’s Legacies Workbook for the Busy Woman: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating a Spiritual-Ethical Will in 2 Hours or Less. She trains, certifies, and leads a guild of nationalwide legacy facilitators.

Freed has developed four applications for the ethical willl and legacy writing:

For use in health care settings, and to create a non-legal, explanatory legacy letter to accompany living wills (advance health care directives) and to facilitate family discussion

To assist the clients of estate attorneys and financial and estate planners to access their personal values and legacy goals as a foundation for their financial and estate planning. <www.theGiftofLegacy.com>

To celebrate significant life moments in the lives and legacies of women (special transitions, birthdays, anniversaries, intergenerational family gatherings, family reunions, Mothers and Grandmothers Days).

To guide communities (organizations, institutions, ethnic groups) to collect and preserve their stories, history, values, and traditions.

Freed established The Women's Legacies Foundation to provide legacy opportunities and resources in perpetuity for women with limited means.

Freed designs and presents programs and projects to meet the needs of organizations, consults with related professionals, facilitates workshops and retreats, is an inspiring keynote speaker, and consults with individuals to prepare their ethical wills, their living wills, and document a values foundation for estate planning and philanthropic giving.

She has trained health care professionals internationally in family-centered cardiac care. Using her extensive media experience to promote the goals of Heartmates and Legacies, Freed:

Guides people of diverse circumstances, individually and in community, to discover/recover past legacies, articulate the wisdom and values of their present lives, and communicate their legacies to loved ones and future generations.

Promotes the expansion of cardiac care to include the family system and their psycho-social-spiritual recovery needs.

See Rachael's Programs and Publications List

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