About

In 1996 Kari Berit and Eric Ramlo launched Age In Motion with the goal of reaching the many people who work with older adults and the older adults themselves, instilling in them that aging is not inherently a negative stage of life. While working in the senior housing field, they created a visionary activity program for Marriott Senior Living called “The Life Enrichment Philosophy in Action.”

Under the Age In Motion brand they have developed numerous programs that serve older adults’ needs. As a consultant, Kari Berit works with organizations to create better older adult friendly programs, train senior friendly sales staffs and educate corporations on the differences between the generations. They have also developed and led several Elderhostel programs that include mental fitness. In April of 2005, Kari Berit’s mental fitness training guide was published. It serves as an invaluable resource helping anyone who leads older adult programs to include the very important element of mental fitness. In 2006 we formed Kari Berit Presents. Why the change? Simple. We tend to lump all “older people” together. And what is “old” anyway? To clarify different programming needs, we added to our Age in Motion offerings a Baby Boomer-focused brand called Act Your Smarts. Recognizing that caregiving is a huge concern for a large majority of the 78 million Boomers (those born between 1946-64) we wrote a book that supports both day-to-day and longer-term issues of caregiving one’s parents. Kari Berit is an expert in creating meaningful dialogue. In her workshops, she helps Boomers and their parents (who often are encouraged to attend together) come to terms with “the elephants in the living room” – those difficult, emotion-laden subjects that so often leave the two generations tongue-tied:

• Lifestyle issues, especially staying in a familiar home – which may need to be modified and tapped for its accumulated equity.
• Mobility challenges, including how long to keep driving and how to stay personally engaged in a life-affirming community.
• End-of-life preferences, from living will and donor decisions, to when to use ‘heroic’ measures and when to let a life end gracefully.
• And, of course, financial and estate planning.

What’s needed is a catalyst – someone who can create a zone of comfort within which Boomers and their parents can connect. Kari Berit makes it safe to talk about the “elephant issues.” In the positive settings she creates, Boomers and their parents learn to open a dialogue … about more than just the numbers.