Speaking & events
Conversations about grief, resilience and beginning again
Dr. Rudo Nyamapfumba speaks to conferences, clinical teams, congregations and community gatherings about loss, growth and the work of starting over — drawn from more than a decade at the bedside rather than from theory.
What audiences leave with
Language for what they are carrying
Most people have never been given words for grief that refuses to behave the way they were told it would.
Permission to move at their own pace
Growth is not a straight line. Audiences leave less anxious about where they think they ought to be by now.
One thing to do on Monday
Every session ends somewhere practical — a conversation to have, a boundary to hold, a question to sit with.
Speaking topics
Every session is shaped around the audience and what the organisers want people to walk out with. These are the conversations Rudo is asked for most often.
Rooted. Rising. Running. Replanting.
Four seasons of growth, and what each one asks of you. Written for people who are ready to move forward but want clarity and encouragement before they do — whether they are building a career, growing a business, navigating motherhood or beginning again after a hard season. Delivered at Rise to Run in Melbourne two years running, with an accompanying guided journal.
When grief does not follow the stages
A decade of sitting with dying people and their families teaches you that loss does not arrive in tidy phases. This session replaces the textbook model with something closer to what people actually experience, and gives audiences a more honest vocabulary for it.
Intersections of spirituality and palliative care for African Americans
Why Black families reach palliative and end-of-life care later, or not at all, and what belief and cultural context have to do with it. Drawn from Rudo’s doctoral research and presented at the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care’s 2026 National Symposium. Suited to clinical, academic and health-system audiences.
Ethics at the end of life
The decisions that have no clean answer — capacity, family disagreement, the gap between what is possible and what is kind. Built for interdisciplinary teams, and informed by Rudo’s work on a national hospice ethics committee.
Holding the people who hold everyone else
For care teams carrying repeated loss. What accumulates, what it costs, and what actually helps — beyond a wellbeing poster in the break room. Delivered as in-service education for nursing, hospice and social work staff.
Supervision and the newly licensed clinician
What early-career clinicians need from supervision, and what supervisors get wrong with the best intentions. For agencies and clinics building their own supervision culture, from a board-approved supervisor who has run one.
Formats
Keynotes and conference sessions
Opening and closing addresses, breakout sessions and panel contributions, for professional conferences and community events.
Clinical training and in-service education
Practical sessions for hospice, hospital, skilled nursing and agency teams on psychosocial care, end-of-life practice and ethics.
Church, community and women’s gatherings
Warmer, more personal sessions on grief, faith and resilience, for congregations, retreats and women’s groups.
Where Rudo has spoken
Rise to Run 2026
Rudo’s second year presenting at Rise to Run — a gathering for women who are ready to move forward but want clarity and encouragement first, whether they are building a career, growing a business, navigating motherhood or beginning again after a hard season. She closed the session with the guided journal below.
Intersections of Spirituality and Palliative Care for African Americans
Subtitled Understanding barriers to utilization, the paper set out how spiritual belief and cultural context shape whether Black families reach palliative and end-of-life care at all — and what clinicians can do differently. It draws on Rudo’s doctoral research and more than a decade of hospice practice. AccentCare highlighted the presentation nationally.
Teaching, training and clinical education
Rudo has spent much of her career teaching other practitioners as well as treating clients:
- Texas State University, School of Social Work — per-course instructor since 2021, delivering course content and curriculum for the social work programme.
- AccentCare Hospice — member of the national ethics team, and clinical education partner to executive directors and site educators across the region.
- Baylor Scott & White Mental Health Specialty Clinic — as Lead Psychotherapist, ran workshops and learning sessions for clinicians on research-based practice, and provided clinical supervision to pre-licensed staff.
- Skilled nursing and hospice settings — in-service education for care teams on psychosocial needs, end-of-life care and resident rights.
- Doctoral research — Understanding how spirituality affects African Americans’ perceptions of hospice (Doctor of Social Work, Capella University, 2020).
The Rise to Run 2026 Journal
Rooted. Rising. Running. Replanting. — a 90-page guided journal Rudo wrote as the takeaway from her Rise to Run session. Four seasons of growth, reflection prompts, and room to write. Free, in exchange for your email.
Have an audience in mind?
Tell Rudo who is in the room and what you want them to leave with, and she will come back with a shape for the session.