At a time when more than half of the U.S. physicians show at least one sign of burnout, compassion is an important feature of well-being. Compassion is characterized by insight, the intention to end suffering, and “attentional balance” – the capacity to attend both to others and to ourselves. Research suggests that compassion may enhance resilience. Cultivating compassion has potential benefits to both health professionals and the patients they seek to heal.

Dr. Halifax discusses how the traits that drive health professionals to end suffering can have darker sides. For example, engagement can give way to burnout, and empathy can turn to empathic distress.

Also join us for the luncheon keynote on exploring a practical, context-sensitive model for cultivating compassion through interactions with others.

Learning Objectives: 

• Participants will learn strategies for harnessing compassion to develop resiliency and capacity to attend to others. 

Speaker:

Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. in medical anthropology in 1973 and has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions and medical centers around the world. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University, and was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress.