ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF SEATTLE

Cocktails 5:00 pm & Appetizers 

Presentation & Dinner 6:00 pm -7:00 pm

Beneath the Conflict: Unrecognized Loss in Estate Planning and Family Decision-Making

A client resists signing a document. Siblings disagree about a parent’s care. A family meeting becomes a struggle over control. Beneath these conflicts may be unrecognized losses involving independence, identity, security, family roles, control, and meaning.

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience as a psychotherapist, grief and transition specialist, and organizational consultant, Dr. Katie Eastman explores the emotional dynamics shaping estate-planning decisions during aging, illness, caregiving, and other significant transitions.

Participants will learn to use Dr. Eastman’s Loss, Motivation, and Meaning Map to identify the hidden losses and motivations underlying resistance, mistrust, and family disagreement. Through practical examples and communication strategies, estate-planning professionals will gain tools to build trust, reduce unnecessary conflict, clarify priorities, and support more constructive decisions.

Dr. Katie Eastman, Psy.D., LICSW

Psychotherapist | Grief and Transition Specialist | International Keynote Speaker | International Best-Selling Author

For more than 40 years, Dr. Katie Eastman has helped individuals, families, and organizations navigate grief, conflict, change, and major life transitions. A licensed psychotherapist, grief and transition specialist, organizational change consultant, and international speaker, she draws on experience in hospice and palliative care, oncology, healthcare leadership, and organizational consulting to address aging, caregiving, family relationships, and end-of-life decisions.

Mentored by the late Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Dr. Eastman created the Loss, Motivation, and Meaning Map, a practical framework for identifying visible and invisible losses and underlying motivations that shape communication, resistance, conflict, and decisions.

She is the international best-selling co-author of The Peace Guidebook: How to Cultivate Hope, Healing, and Harmony for the Good of Humankind and Percolate: Let Your Best Self Filter Through, and author of UPLIFTING: Inspiring Stories of Loss, Change, and Growth. Her presentations offer compassionate strategies for difficult conversations, stronger relationships, and thoughtful decision-making.