Michael Eselun
Staff Chaplain/Oncology Spiritual Care Specialist
Responsibilities
As the chaplain/oncology spiritual care specialist, I’m bringing the newest dimension to complement the myriad of professional services the Center offers—spiritual support. I’ve found that many folks have misconceptions about who or what a chaplain is and what a chaplain does, or even what the term “spiritual care” means. Many equate the term with religion and religious rituals or proselytizing, or presume that this is only a Christian minister’s role to other Christians. While a chaplain may be all those things, inter-faith spiritual care is not nearly so narrowly focused or limited in scope.
Increasingly I hear more and more folks say, “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.” I do believe there’s a difference between the two, and certainly there is an overlap as well. I would define spirituality as that which gives your life meaning... what makes you get up and face the day, makes life worth fighting for. For some that would be religious community or ritual or a relationship to God or a higher power, and for some it might be their family, their work or a good round of golf! And when we are in crisis, or disease has altered our relationship to that thing or our capacity to connect to it, whatever it is -- well then, that becomes a spiritual crisis as well. Cancer not only invades the physical body but it can invade our spirit, our soul, our very identities, and the relationships that keep us connected to life or even to our sense of higher power or God.
I am here to offer support, to perhaps walk a short piece of that journey with you… patients, families, loved ones, caregivers. (And one doesn’t have to be in crisis either to have a little friendly support along the way!) I will visit folks primarily in the outpatient clinics including Santa Monica Oncology Clinic and the treatment clinics in the Med Plaza at UCLA. But I am also available for more private one-on-one support in person in the Center or over the phone. I look forward to integrating spiritual care into the Center’s work in other ways -- training the next generation of spiritual care providers, perhaps creating support groups, offering talks… we’ll just have to see where it leads!
Training
I come to chaplaincy and to the Simms/Mann Center by a circuitous route indeed. I graduated with a BA in Design from UCLA in 1978 and have had a multi-faceted professional life. I completed a 2-year chaplaincy internship at UCLA Medical Center in 2003 (Clinical Pastoral Education) with a focus on hematology-oncology. In 2008 I was also accepted into the City of Hope/ACE Project – Course 3 (Advocating for Clinical Excellence-Transdisciplinary Palliative Care Education) -- a multi-year, nationwide training initiative to improve the culture and effectiveness of palliative healthcare in the US.
Professional Work
As a young man, I had a 10-year career as a professional dancer, and had a 20 year career as a self-employed interior designer/architect. Volunteering for a fledgling AIDS hospice project in 1991 sparked the beginning of the journey that led me to chaplaincy and to UCLA these many years later. After completing my chaplaincy internship at UCLA, I was the chaplain for a local hospice for two years before being hired by Santa Monica-UCLA Hospital to be the chaplain for the Palliative Care Program from 2005-2009. I’ve also served as the chaplain for the Acute Adult Partial Hospitalization Program, at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA since 2003. As a volunteer, I served as the unit chaplain for the inpatient hematology-oncology unit from 2003-2008. I am regularly engaged by the Department of Spiritual Care at UCLA to offer didactics to chaplain interns and residents on a variety of subjects, as well as to participate in the training of first year medical students on the place of spiritual care in the healing process.
I’ve been invited many times to speak to undergraduate students at UCLA, to church communities and to the Wellness Community about my work as a chaplain, on death and dying and the spiritual dimension of the cancer experience.
Personal Interests /Perspectives
What might at first read like a disjointed resume, from where I stand now, mine looks instead like a more accurate depiction of life -- as it is. Twists, turns, sudden drops, unexpected detours that lead to new places we never could have anticipated and certainly never aimed for. And along the way, crisis, sometimes devastation… and sometimes redemption and profound healing. A new understanding of who we are and what life is, what it all means. From what I’ve observed, that is an image of the cancer journey as well. My affinity for this work was really born out of my volunteer hospice work in the early days of the AIDS pandemic. That work demanded that one come to peace with unanswerable questions, while holding the space open for more exploration of what it all means. It also demands creating a safe and sacred place to tell one’s truth. These are hallmarks of my work as I see it.
Friendships and family (including animals) are like oxygen to me. As one of my mentors reminds me, “Relationships are primary, EVERYTHING else is derivative.” I swim everyday and get cranky if I don’t. I still have the soul of a dancer. Yosemite recharges my spirit every spring. I am an avid theatergoer and would spend my last nickel on a trip to some exotic place.