How are you doing with your own self-caring lately?
What about your compassion fatigue?
I’m happy to share a new resource from David Kopacz, MD, a psychiatrist who works at the Seattle VA. His new book is out today from my friend Shelly Francis of Creative Courage Press, the same publisher as my book, Resilient Threads (see Shelly’s recent “Fortitude” Substack post).
I was honored to read an early copy and endorse David’s book, Caring for Self & Others: Transforming Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Soul Loss.
As physicians, we may not always acknowledge that we each have a soul. However, we are in a sacred profession that truly holds the soul of our patients. Whatever we call it, there is a place deep within us—almost the elephant in the room—that is our compass guiding us, our North Star.
Oftentimes we get lost because we don’t care for our internal compass. That is the essence of what’s lost in healthcare today. If we have the true soulful connection with our Self, it needs to be fed first so that we can be available to everyone else.
When we make self-care and colleague care an unapologetic and unashamed priority, we can give the best care to our patients. David Kopacz invites us to reconnect to our humanity, nurturing our hearts and minds as healers and setting the stage for our systems to heal as well.
I hope you’ll consider reading and sharing David’s important book. Creative Courage Press is offering a free sample PDF—the first 33 pages HERE.
Thank you for sharing, Mukta, and also leading the way of caring!