Beth Patterson is a palliative care chaplain, presently serving at University of Colorado Health Anschutz, working both inpatient and outpatient (ambulatory clinic) palliative care.  She has 35+ years of hospice related experience (bereavement, children’s programs, philanthropy, program design and management).  

She completed her palliative care chaplaincy fellowship through the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at UCH in 2020.  She has been a clinical chaplain for 12+ years and has board certification pending. Beth is also a palliative care/end of life doula, having trained with the Conscious Dying Institute and INELDA and is a member in good standing with NEDA. She is also affiliated with The Peaceful Presence Project located in Bend, OR.

Beth graduated from Iliff School of Theology in 1995 with a MA in Religious Studies/emphasis on Pastoral Care.  She is an endorsed chaplain by the American Humanist Association. Beth is currently learning to be a facilitator with a CU Anschutz phase 2b, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center study of the effects of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy on existential distress in patients with advanced cancer.   Beth loves her work and often considers it ‘play’. As such, her playgrounds are the fields of existential questions, struggle, and exploration of/opening to the unknown. 

As she winds down her official career, she is winding up to the next chapter of how she may be of service to her fellow humans and to the ‘more than human’ world.  She has a profound interest in how humans can grow throughout their lifetimes, all the way through their final breaths. Beth is a ceremonialist by nature and developed an intensive program for croning women 55 years and older who are seeking for initiation into the stages of wisdom and generativity.  She enjoys training and working with Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe and recently completed their Being With Dying program.  Beth has deep connections to Colorado as well as Oregon.  She has a grown daughter and family, including 2 teenaged grandchildren, who live in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.