Webinar | Empathy, Compassion & the Gift of being Present for Those Hurting

Description

Compassion is a presence and action that provides people safe spaces where they and their story can be heard and seen without judgment. In such a safe place a person experiences being understood, accepted and valued.  In mental health compassion reduces the inherent shame of children and parents who have experienced trauma and mental health challenges. Compassion opens the door to person – professional partnerships to address and resolve familial trauma and subsequent system challenges. Compassion expedites familial healing and recovery. However, cultivating such compassionate presence and action can be challenging for mental health professionals given tremendous system stressors and secondary traumatic stress. However, research details the health, emotional, social and relational growth to self and others when compassionate action drives interaction and intervention.

Compassion entails a deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it. In a legal context, this means shifting from a punitive, blame-focused model to one that seeks understanding, offers support, and nurtures healing for both families and professionals.  It offers a lens through which we can see our shared humanity with our clients and each other, transcending our instinctual propensity to shame and blame.  It is a shift towards serving the goals of children and their families, and away from our hard-wired emotionally-based, reactive impulses.

In a compassion-based model, all professionals would be mindful of the suffering experienced by everyone in the system- work towards alleviating that suffering in whatever ways possible. We would extend compassion for our colleagues and their human suffering, even when their professional duty and client’s goals are not in alignment with our own. 

Presenter:
James Henry, MSW, PhD
Professor
School of Social Work
Western Michigan University