Naomi Gisela Feil

Naomi Feil, the developer of the Validation method, dead at 91.

(Jasper, Oregon)

On Christmas eve, Naomi Feil, best known as the developer of the Validation method for communicating with old disoriented persons, died at her home in Jasper, Oregon. She is survived by her four children (Victoria de Klerk-Rubin married to Piet de Klerk, Beth Rubin married to Dane S. McGregor, Edward G. Feil married to Jocelyn Warren, and Kenneth Jonathan Feil married to Michael S. Keane), six grandchildren (Helena de Klerk, Katherina de Klerk, Elinor Rubin-McGregor, Ethan Feil, Jordan Rubin-McGregor and Claudia Feil), and one great grandchild (Lucia Beatrix Estevez de Klerk). Mrs Feil was married twice, first to Warren J. Rubin, then, from 1963 on, to Edward R. Feil. Both passed away.

Mrs Feil was born as Gisela Noemi Weil in Munich in 1932. Her parents, Julius Weil and Helen Weil nee Kahn, fled Germany in 1936/1937 to the United States, where Dr. Weil became the director of the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland, Ohio, and Mrs Weil the head of its Social Service Department. Living with the elderly at the home gave her a unique empathy and insight into the world of disoriented elders.

Mrs. Feil studied at Oberlin College, Western Reserve University and Columbia University. In 1956 she graduated with her Masters from Columbia School of Social Work cum laude. Between 1956 and 1960, Feil lived in New York City, married Warren Rubin, had two daughters and studied acting, one of her great passions and skills, at the well-known Herbert Berghof Studio. Here she honed skills that would help her in the future.

In 1960, she moved to Cleveland, Ohio where she married Edward Feil and had her two sons. As the family grew, so did her passion for the unconventional. She earned a brown belt in Minna Jitsu, which she studied along with her children. It was in the Montefiore Home, where she had grown up, that she began to work with the disoriented elderly professionally and came to the conviction that caregivers should 'step into the world of the disoriented old-old' and stop using reality orientation, diversion or lying. That was the beginning of Validation, as she describes in her book Validation, the Feil Method (1982). This first book was followed by others like The Validation Breakthrough.

With her husband Ed Feil, a professional filmmaker, she collaborated on many films that she wrote and often acted in. Their masterpiece The Inner World of Aphasia was placed on the National Film Registry in 2015 as part of "America's film heritage." Her books, and workshops (she led over 1000 in the U.S. and 1000 in Europe) spread her messages: that there is a reason behind the behavior of disoriented older adults, and to use empathy to accompany them in their final stage of life. She has been called the "Godmother" of "person-centered" care, work that has inspired new generations of care workers. In 1982 she established the Validation Training Center and acted as director until 2014, when her daughter Vicki took the helm of the Institute.

At present there are 24 Validation training centers in 14 countries, providing services in 11 different languages across Europe, the US, Japan and China. Over 9,000 people are certified in the Validation method, improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of older adults worldwide. It is supported by 25 Authorized Validation Organizations (AVO's) around the world, and is practiced in more than 10,000 dementia care institutions. Her life's work on the Validation Method will be carried on through the Validation Training Institute and her film work with her husband and collaborator is preserved at the Indiana University Library's Moving Image Archive. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests contributions in her memory be made to the Validation Training Institute at https://vfvalidation.org.