This book makes a significant contribution to the need for compassion in the 21st-century neoliberal university. Compassion is a process that involves (i) noticing that suffering is present in an organization; (ii) making meaning of suffering in a way that contributes to a desire to alleviate it; (iii) feeling empathic concern; and (iv) taking action. There is increasing recognition of the crucial role of compassion as a core concern in education, health and social care, and globally to ensure the future sustainability of humankind and the planet. Drawing upon a wide range of interdisciplinary, theoretical, and professional perspectives—including social sciences, modern Darwinism, intersectionality, higher education policy, and organization studies—the book addresses the key challenges facing 21st-century universities. For example, intersectionality and higher education, staff and student health and well-being, and responding to global challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic. The book is relevant to university leaders, policy makers, educators, researchers, university staff, and students aspiring to develop their own understanding of the role of compassion in professional life. It is an important marker of the compassion turn in higher education and what this means for contemporary academic leadership, followership, and pedagogical practice.

A Guide to Compassionate Healthcare looks at how to maintain wellbeing in today’s challenging healthcare environments, enabling practitioners to make a positive difference to the care environment whilst providing compassionate care to patients. This practical guide focuses on strategies to maintain health and wellbeing as health care practitioners, in relation to stress management, resilience and positivity. Health and social care practitioners have been challenged over and above anything they have faced before due to the Covid pandemic. These situations have caused extreme trauma and stress to patients, their loved ones and those who have been struggling to care for them. The book highlights why resilience and good stress management are crucial, and how they can be achieved through a focus on wellbeing and positivity, referring to her RESPECT toolkit: Resilience, Emotional intelligence, Stress management, Positivity, Energy and motivation, Challenge and Team leadership. This is essential reading for all those working in healthcare today who are passionate about compassionate care and want to ensure that they remain positive and well, particularly newly qualified staff.

Written by a leading healthcare academic and an accredited international business coach, this book takes a new approach to one of the most crucial issues in healthcare – how to care for patients appreciatively, responsively and compassionately. In the light of the findings of the Francis Report (2013), and at a time when healthcare services are under enormous pressure, there is a clear and urgent need for such a book. Despite the challenges of ill health, the authors demonstrate that the opportunity is there for any healthcare practitioner to draw out what the patient needs and desires, in line with the patient’s own values, purposes and beliefs. This approach seeks to alleviate suffering and allows the patient to be more empowered and motivated to change, discovering choice and possibility in times of adversity. In this way, the practitioner can help the patient increase their own resilience and resourcefulness. At the same time, the practitioner discovers their own ability to self-care and self-manage. Aimed at healthcare students and practitioners at all levels, Appreciative Healthcare Practice will provide a valuable and supportive learning resource for a wide range of individuals involved in caring. Contents include: Introduction Carers’ stories Compassionate and dignified care Professionalism – on becoming a professional Applying appreciative inquiry in practice and education Creativity and care Applying the three-eye model to healthcare Mindful healthcare practice The appreciative care worker and coach

This book provides a practical guide on the art and science of compassionate care in an era of healthcare crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is inflicting long-lasting financial and psychosocial trauma on an unprecedented scale. A new approach to compassionate care is presented based on the overarching concepts of empathy, person and family centeredness, therapeutic relationship, kindness, gratitude, spirituality, communication skills, shared decision making, positive psychology, adversity-activated development, self-care, compassion fatigue, spirituality which are more than ever critical in successfully managing the pandemic adversity in front of us. This book draws on clinical experience, educational activities and evidence-based knowledge from academic physicians (primary, secondary and tertiary care), nurses, psychologists, health economists, healthcare managers, health policymakers, medical professionals students and patients. It provides skills and knowledge that can be implemented in daily clinical practice based on all levels of healthcare on a whole-person approach. An array of clinical cases, patient journeys, published evidence and practical experience is combined to deliver in a practical way unique guidance and advice. The target audience is all healthcare professionals, health policymakers, healthcare managers and patient associations. This approach of Compassionate Care is of great importance and can save lives and money in these unprecedented times of global healthcare care system challenges.

“This book explains not only the healing power of compassionate human connection, but in the most accessible and practical ways, how to cultivate our capacity to create that connection and thereby empower others to find their best selves.”—John Makransky, author of Awakening through Love All of us have an innate capacity for compassion. We recognize when others are hurting, and we want to help, but we’re not always good at it. There is another way. In The Compassionate Connection, Dr. David Rakel explains how we can strengthen our bonds with others—all the while doing emotional and physical good for ourselves. As founder and director of the University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine program, Dr. Rakel discovered that we become the most effective helpers when we use the tool of human connection. Drawing on his own research and practice, as well as thirty years of published studies in medicine, sociology, psychology, meditation, and neuroscience, Dr. Rakel "stacks the deck" in favor of healing and introduces the concept of bio-psycho-spiritual authentic awareness. Not only are our bodies and minds connected, but also it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to feel beauty, awe, and compassion enhances our health and wellbeing. In The Compassionate Connection, Dr. Rakel provides an innovative approach to enhancing health in others and strengthening relationships through the art of connecting. These tools guide us to improve our connections—whether between doctor and patient, husband and wife, parent and child, or boss and employee—and live with clarity, wisdom, and good health.

Experts increasingly recognise that our volatile, complex, and fragile world requires a new type of leadership. More than ever, we need leaders who understand how compassion connects them with their employees, stakeholders and wider communities. Yet compassion in organisations is often misunderstood, with many leaders reluctant to embrace it lest they appear weak. Compassionate Leadership draws on new and established research in psychology, behavioural science, neuropsychology and leadership theory to show that compassion, when correctly understood and applied is, in fact, a formidable and sustainable force for positive leadership. This book explores the common myths, pitfalls, and concerns about leading with a compassionate approach. It discusses the leadership, organisational and individual benefits of compassion and shows how leaders can design an organisation which establishes, then reinforces, a compassionate culture. A practical guide, this book provides evidence-based tools, appraisals, and frameworks which emphasise everyday applications that leaders, managers, and business students can adopt both individually and for their organisations. Compassionate Leadership presents a new model of compassion, an approach based on multidisciplinary research in a variety of organisational settings. It gives leaders a theoretical and practical underpinning they can use for deeper reflection and personal growth to turn their new-found knowledge into action.

Mindfulness involves learning to be more aware of life as it unfolds moment by moment, even if these moments bring us difficulty, pain or suffering. This is a challenge we will all face at some time in our lives, and which health professionals face every day in their work. The Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living programme presents a new way of learning how to face the pressures of modern living by providing an antidote which teaches us how to cultivate kindness and compassion – starting with being kind to ourselves. Compassion involves both sensitivity to our own and others’ suffering and the courage to deal with it. Integrating the work of experts in the field such as Paul Gilbert, Kristin Neff, Christopher Germer and Tara Brach, Erik van den Brink and Frits Koster have established an eight stage step-by-step compassion training programme, supported by practical exercises and free audio downloads, which builds on basic mindfulness skills. Grounded in ancient wisdom and modern science, they demonstrate how being compassionate shapes our minds and brains, and benefits our health and relationships. The programme will be helpful to many, including people with various types of chronic or recurring mental health problems, and can be an effective means of coping better with low self-esteem, self-reproach or shame, enabling participants to experience more warmth, safeness, acceptance and connection with themselves and others. Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living will be an invaluable manual for mindfulness teachers, therapists and counsellors wishing to bring the ‘care’ back into healthcare, both for their clients and themselves. It can also be used as a self-help guide for personal practice.

Despite the scope and sophistication of contemporary health care, there is increasing international concern about the perceived lack of compassion in its delivery. Citing evidence that when the basic needs of patients are attended to with kindness and understanding, recovery often takes place at a faster level, patients cope more effectively with the self-management of chronic disorders and can more easily overcome anxiety associated with various disorders, this book looks at how good care can be put back into the process of caring. Beginning with an introduction to the historical values associated with the concept of compassion, the text goes on to provide a bio-psycho-social theoretical framework within which the concept might be further explained. The third part presents thought-provoking case studies and explores the implementation and impact of compassion in a range of healthcare settings. The fourth part investigates the role that organizations and their structures can play in promoting or hindering the provision of compassion. The book concludes by discussing how compassion may be taught and evaluated, and suggesting ways for increasing the attention paid to compassion in health care. Developing a multi-disciplinary theory of compassionate care, and underpinned by empirical examples of good practice, this volume is a valuable resource for all those interesting in understanding and supporting compassion in health care, including advanced students, academics and practitioners within medicine, nursing, psychology, allied health, sociology and philosophy.

Compassionate Leadership for School Improvement and Renewal aims to equip educational leaders with the knowledge, skills, and learning experiences necessary to approach their work from an intentional stance of compassion. Schools serve as both sites and sources of suffering; yet compassionate leadership can facilitate healing for students, educators, and community members. The moment is right to move the field toward a compassion-centered approach to leadership. In recent years, people around the world have experienced unfathomable loss and suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent inequities and subsequent social justice protests, war and violence, and catastrophic natural disasters. These events created perpetual anxiety, stress, fear, uncertainty, loss, and grief for millions of people—including educators. Now perhaps more than ever, people need to give and receive compassion. The purpose of the volume is to build educational leaders’ capacity to demonstrate compassion, foster collective compassion within their schools and districts, establish organizational environments in which compassion is routinely given and received, and, subsequently, transform schools into sites of healing. Ultimately, through the unique contributions of each chapter, this volume offers a path toward school improvement that is both renewing and sustaining. ENDORSEMENTS: "As a former school counselor and school administrator, my view about compassionate leadership is one grounded in relational practice. This may be obvious to some, but unfortunately lost on many. This thoughtful volume edited by Kara Lasater and Kristina LaVenia explores a desperately needed reformulation of school leadership for our times. Compassionate leadership takes enormous courage because it works against much of the institutional ethos that forms and frames the role, thinking, and behaviors of those ostensibly charged to both manage and lead schools." — William C. Frick, University of Oklahoma "The education system is in its most challenging period in decades, perhaps in the past century. The need now is to address student, staff and organizational suffering. Lasater and LaVenia et. al., offer antidotes in this volume by providing up to date research, theory and insight to cultivate, conceptualize and practice compassionate educational leadership. For those who teach and lead with their heart, this book is essential reading." — Joseph A. Polizzi, Sacred Heart University "In an increasingly challenging educational landscape, leaders find themselves facing teacher shortages, student trauma, and learning loss. Schools could easily become institutions rife with secondary trauma and burned out professionals operating in stark contrast to the unifying motivations that drew each of us into this profession. This volume reminds us that among the many skill sets leaders must employ, organizational and leader compassion fulfills a fundamental human need and unlocks a means by which schools can transform from professional survival to the joyful work of changing lives for the better." — Joshua Ray, Greenwood Public Schools

It may take a few more decades, but ‘soon enough,’ A.I. will turn into super-A.I. This is an artificial intelligence which in all areas of what is now seen as ‘human intelligence’ approaches this, then surpasses it. After that, it will keep growing exponentially. In the meantime, at relatively short notice, humanity will encounter a challenging A.I. bi-bottleneck: 1) humans possibly misusing A.I. in a big way, and 2) A.I. spiraling into many directions of which any unfortunate one may be enough for disaster. Will we control A.I. or will A.I. dominate us? Let’s hope this is the wrong question. Because if it’s the right question, and given enough time, there is no shred of a doubt about the answer. Still, of course, we need to give it our best shot not to be dominated by an evil force. We should strive for control. At the same time, transcending the question opens up the domain of Compassion. This gradually makes thinking in terms of ‘control’ and ‘domination’ in human – A.I. interactions obsolete. We will together strive for a better world within an alignment of our values. But what are the real human values? There are cultural and individual differences. Moreover, what seem to be anyone’s values may be a superficial layer above deeper values, which are not necessarily congruent with conscious awareness. So, the human/A.I. value alignment question will be: how to align what? I write in The Journey about Compassion as the striving to approach these values in their deeper sense. They can subsequently be realized for each individual in two directions: relief of deep suffering and enhancement of inner growth. Both notions are to be clarified at the individual level. Compassionate A.I. is (the striving towards) an A.I. that can help us to know and to realize ourselves in-depth. The beauty is that this way, human/A.I. value alignment and further development of A.I. can intrinsically go hand in hand. Lisa is a software coaching chat-bot that is being developed specifically with this goal: helping humans and A.I. in Compassionate ways to become healthier, stronger and more effectively Compassionate towards near ones as well as all sentient beings. In this book, ‘super-A.I.’ is the future kind of A.I. that may be able – but not necessarily! – to act Compassionately. We don’t have to wait for that, for Compassionate A.I. to become important. Already, humans can use A.I. more or less Compassionately. From what point is it relevant as a characteristic of the A.I. system itself, regardless of how humans use the A.I.? There is no steep border. Long before super-A.I., the first systems in which it becomes more pertinent, are those in which Compassion is part of the purpose. That is, systems that in communication with users are meant to give an effectively Compassionate experience. To understand where Compassionate A.I. may be heading towards, we need to understand Compassion. This leads us on a journey, starting on the one hand from ‘data’ and on the other hand from drive-to-thrive (life itself). On this journey, we encounter many insights about intelligence, consciousness, drive-to-thrive, non-conscious processing... The end of the journey lies in full Compassion. Hopefully, this is the future for A.I. as well as humanity.