Tag Archives: Mindfulness

Advance Praise for Caring For Self & Others

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We’ve gotten some really nice endorsements for the upcoming release of Caring for Self & Others: Transforming Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Soul Loss – which will be released on June 25th and is currently available for pre-order through Amazon. I’ll share some of the comments below:

“It is a healing experience to read the beautiful, self-journey into self-caring through the wounded depth of the dark night of soul. It is through such personal sharing of self that we learn from each other. David Kopacz ‘s book offers readers a gift of hope, courage and self love, that both teach and inspirit us with his soul’s path into self-caring and heart healing.”

Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL (AAN), Founder Watson Caring Science Institute, Distinguished Prof/Dean Emerita University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing

“This holistic, imaginative and soulful response to burnout is much needed in today’s world.”

Dr. Dina Glouberman, author of The Joy of Burnout: How the end of the world can be a new beginning

“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.”

Mukta Panda, MD, author of Resilient Threads: Weaving Joy and Meaning into Well-Being and co-author of The Oath to Self-Care and Well-Being

Caring for Self & Others Transforming Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Soul Loss is a blueprint for authentic happiness. Dr. David Kopacz has gifted us with an insightful guide for self-care. He points to how burnout and compassion fatigue lead to losing our souls and how the loss teaches us a way into depth and spirituality. He suggests ways to sit with equanimity between the wholeness of the sacred and the mundane. This book is an invitation to show up fully and to rediscover there is no split of body/mind or between the self and the collective; it contains perennial wisdom with all its regenerative power. 

Marianela Medrano, PhD, What a Word is Worth podcast, and author of Rooting, Diosas de la yuca, and other titles

“David Kopacz, versed in worldwide healing traditions where illness is approached as a loss of soul and healing involves its restoration, offers a complete vision of individual, social, and earth practice where everything contributes to a communion of creation that transforms afflictions into affirmations of life. His personal “dark night” shows the way to a timeless discipline of compassionate creation with others, helping us see that we participate in a process larger than ourselves yet sustained by our unique and personal contributions.”

Shaun McNiff, PhD, author of Art as Medicine, Art Heals, Integrating the Arts in Therapy, Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go, Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression, and other books. Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, 2021 to date: University Professor Emeritus

“Finally, a book that puts together what self-care and healing are really about! Kopacz, an exceptional healer, presents a comprehensive and holistic perspective on ideas and practices that can mitigate the burnout and fatigue that are rampant in healthcare. This is a handbook that will help every practitioner reclaim their role as healer and reconnect with the Soul of their practice. An exquisite, insightful and transformative work!”

Lucia Thornton, ThD, MSN, RN, Past President, American Holistic Nurses Association, Past President, Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, and author of Whole Person Caring: An Interprofessional Model for Healing and Wellness

“As a clinician who has experienced deep burnout, I adore this book and find it endlessly useful. Dr. Kopacz aptly offers his work as an oxygen mask. He exquisitely supports attention toward the crucial self care healers of all kinds desperately need for thriving lives.”

Kate King, MA, LPC, ATR-BC, author of The Radiant Life Project

“Caring for Self & Others: Transforming Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Soul Loss  demands to be read with our heads and our hearts.   David Kopacz challenges us to care for ourselves, others and the systems we work in.  The book is filled with exercises and meditations that can help us in this work.  David also shares his journey and how he was employed the ideas and exercises in his own life that reveal the depth of his commitment to caring.”

John (Jack) Miller, Professor at the University of Toronto and author of Education and the Soul, Love and Compassion: Exploring Their Role in Education, and A Holistic Educator’s Journey: Seeking Wholeness in America, Canada, Japan and AsiaThe Holistic Curriculum

“Caring for Self & Others charts a path through the inevitable downturns and struggles of our lives by using our very suffering as material for transformation and growth. It elaborates a practice of caring that leads us from our individual pain into service to others by breaking down the mental barriers that lead us to believe that there is a self separate from others. This is perennial wisdom for the soul.”

Stephen Cope, Scholar Emeritus, Kripalu Center, bestselling author of The Great Work of Your Life, The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living, and The Dharma in Difficult Times: Finding Your Calling in Times of Loss, Change, Struggle, and Doubt

“Caring for Self and Others speaks directly to us in these uncertain and difficult times; a book that we must read. The author uses his own experience both as a doctor and patient to deeply delve into the different kinds of caring: for the body, for emotion, for mind, heart. It is a book full of wisdom gained by the author’s insight and continuous growing curiosity about life and the importance of caring and healing. This book is written for you; that is, anyone with an interest in the world around us who knows that to live well (or thrive), we need to care for ourselves and others. David Kopacz both explains why we need to care but also gives practical ways of doing so.”

Jonathan McFarland, MA, President and Founder of The Doctor as a Humanist and co-editor of Health Humanities for Quality of Care in Times of COVID -19, Associate Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Caring for Self & Others: Transforming Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Soul Loss will be published by Creative Courage Press – thanks to Shelly Francis for all the support in the publication process!

Authentic Leadership In Action

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Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 2012

I am sitting in the Vancouver airport, on my way back to Auckland.  I attended the ALIA summer leadership program last week. As part of taking on a new role of clinical director at the rehabilitation centre, I asked that I have some leadership training and this programme looked like a really good fit for my background in holistic medicine as well as the recovery philosophy of rehabilitation. ALIA grows out of the Shambhala tradition of mindfulness and meditation, but adds a philosophy of active engagement and participation in the world. Thus, there is a blending of mindfulness, creative arts, social activism, entrepreneurship, and creative, ethical business practices.

I was really impressed with the people teaching and attending the programme. In fact, it would be hard to say which was more valuable, the ideas or the people – if pressed, I would have to say the people.  Still, there were some good ideas about change in organizations. The sub-track that I choose was “How the World Is Changed,” which was based on Frances Westley and Barbara Zimmerman’s book, Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed. One of the most useful aspects of this model was looking at different stages of personal and organizational change and the traps that people can get stuck in. The shifting focus between individual, organization, community, and world was very similar to what I taught in my Being Fully Human class, so it was interesting to see how these holistic, interlocking dimensions were conceptualized in different ways at ALIA. I don’t have my notes right now, but perhaps I’ll put a few quotes and models in another entry of the blog at some point. I found it very energizing to meet a wide array of professionals from different fields, all very socially aware, idealistic, and committed to facilitating growth and change in the world. I only met one other doctor at the conference, and actually, I feel it is probably more fruitful for me to have had this leadership experience outside of a narrowly defined medical/psychiatric practice. I think it is 11:30 PM, Halifax time, where I started out this morning, but it is only 6:30 PM here in Vancouver. I am grateful to have had a few hours break here before getting back on another plane.

It was very interesting getting a Canadian perspective on social change. While there were people from New Zealand, Australia, and the States at the conference, the tone of the conference was very Canadian and I feel I have gotten a small feel for Canadian culture from this experience, which is a benefit I hadn’t counted on.

One aspect of the conference that I studied and appreciated was the challenge of bridging mindfulness, social activism, and business as the conference committee worked to create experiences that were personally transformative, as well as intellectually educational. My own work, for instance in my book, Creating a Holistic Medical Practice: A Guide for Transforming Your Self, Your Practice, and the Culture of Medicine, I try to take concepts that are more from the fringe and to bring these back into more mainstream culture. This is quite a challenge, because if too watered down, the energy is lost, but without some degree of translation toward the mean, readers would be lost. (By the way, I am still waiting to hear from a literary agent about whether they will pick up my book or not. I continue to check my email every day looking for their decision!)

All in all, I would say that ALIA is a positive force for change in the world, it is a great crucible out of which many good things will grow.