Wellness Seminar: Retirement with Meaning, Part II

Join Carmen Accetta for a Wellness Seminar, titled “Retirement with Meaning, Part II,” at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11 in Orchestra Hall.

Learn about going inward to retirement – making the shift from “doing” to “being in” this process, as well as making the shift from competition to cooperation, and moving from ego and personal ambition towards the common good. Seeing old age as the “culminating stage of spiritual development.” (Zalman Schachter-Shalomi) will bring you to the intertwining of community, relationships and spirituality.

Carmen Accetta is a lifetime learner. He’s an advocate for and a facilitator of lifetime learning. Accetta loves to see people learn and change, especially when information produces a transformation in them. His current focus is on the second half of life principles and their potential for transforming our retirement years.

Two years ago, Accetta developed a podcast to help people capitalize on the growth opportunities in their retirement years.  Yes, this is the same period of life that our culture paints a very gloomy, pessimistic picture. On the other hand, Carl Jung, who has written extensively on the second half of life said, “The greatest potential for growth and self-realization exists in the second half of life.”

Accetta’s earned a master’s degree in counseling and four years of post-graduate work in Methods of Gestalt Therapy at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. After leaving the service, he was a high school teacher for 18 years and then a psychotherapist for 30. He has had many years of experience facilitating various types of groups and many years as a speaker.

Accetta was the youngest of eight children. He turned 4 about a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He learned early in life the importance and power of faith, family, close friends and community in making his way through changing and difficult times. His older brothers and sisters, who exerted a strong influence on him, were part of the “Greatest Generation” who survived the Great Depression and went on to help win World War II.

Accetta and his wife, Carol, have been married for 56 years. They have seven daughters and 17 grandchildren. His three oldest daughters are now slipping quietly into their second half of life.