Carlyle comes from a diverse background, having spent the first part of his career performing and producing theatre in Chicago. A graduate of Northwestern University, he worked with some of the finest creative minds around today. One glowing accomplishment was as a co-founder of The Actor’s Gymnasium, a school for the Arts focusing on circus skills, gymnastics, voice, mime and every wild thing under the sun.
Since 2000, his work shifted to the work of a spiritual counselor. Carlyle has worked primarily in hospice, as well as in hospitals and as part of a Palliative Care team at Kaiser San Jose Medical Center, where he was also the Manager of Spiritual Care. He is Board Certified with the Association of Professional Chaplains and was one of the first Buddhist practitioners to be designated as such. Until 2011, Carlyle held the role of Section Leader for the Spiritual Caregiving Section of the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Professionals (NCHPP). NCHPP represents the professional disciplines within end of life care, being part of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
He served as Hospice Director for Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, re-opening and obtaining the license for their 6 bed hospice Guest House. He also served as their Executive Director. With Zen Hospice he ran several bereavement groups and served as their Bereavement Coordinator.
Most recently he was the Spiritual Counselor for the Children’s Branch at San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine and for Scripps Hospice. His work specialized in Palliative Care and end of life care for children from birth to early adulthood. He also provided perinatal support for families facing the possibility of serious complications from the birth of their child.
Throughout this time Carlyle has presented on a variety of topics concerning end of life care, bereavement, self-care, resilience and spirituality at the state and national levels.
