#  Counselor Providing Critical End-Of-Life Spiritual Care 

 





**Harrison Blum, MDiv '12**, a spiritual care counselor, provides critical spiritual, meaning making, and grief support for those in need of end-of-life care.



 

May 29, 2025

 

 

     ![Harrison Blum headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-06/H_Blum_headshot.jpg?h=05a81dd2&itok=9ateSco1) 

Harrison Blum, MDiv '12



 



 

*Harrison Blum, MDiv ‘12, Spiritual Care Counselor, Baystate Hospice (Western MA)*

*View* [*more stories*](/community-life/career-services/alumni-career-snapshots "Alumni Career Snapshots") *on HDS alumni and their career paths.*

## Describe the work you do today:

I visit patients and their loved ones in their homes to provide spiritual care, meaning making, and grief support around death and dying. This looks different depending on who I'm sitting with, and each day is different. I work with an interdisciplinary team that includes nurses and social workers. I also have a side business as a life coach and breathwork teacher.

## How has your HDS degree experience influenced your career journey?

Tremendously. My field education placements at MIT, Dana Farber, and Brigham and Women's (now Mass General Brigham) gave me the clarity that a career in chaplaincy would be highly satisfying and usefully challenging for me. Since graduating I've worked as a chaplain in medical, psychiatric, higher education, and hospice settings. For me, working in these different contexts, and from direct care work to more managerial and administrative chaplaincy posts, has been stimulating and rewarding.

## What career advice would you offer to current HDS students?

If you have to, do what you want to be doing for free, then for cheap, and eventually for a sustainable wage. Get the words and positions on your resume that help pave the way for where you want to go (e.g. if you want to do college chaplaincy work, do anything to get your foot in the door - even one-time volunteering with college programs - to demonstrate you can and have worked in that space). Take advantage of field ed opportunities at HDS to see what you like. Lean on your networks for ideas and opportunities. And reach out to places you want to work BEFORE they have jobs posted. Two of my post-HDS jobs came from cold calls to places to see if they were hiring chaplains.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Alumni News and Profiles ](/discover-stories-about/alumni-news-and-profiles)