The Soul Of Care

A moving memoir and an extraordinary love story that shows how an expert physician became a family caregiver and learned why care is so central to all our lives and yet is at risk in today's world. When Dr. Arthur Kleinman, an eminent Harvard psychiatrist and social anthropologist, began caring for his wife, Joan, after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, he found just how far the act of caregiving extended beyond the boundaries of medicine. In The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor, Kleinman delivers a deeply humane and inspiring story of his life in medicine and his marriage to Joan, and he describes the practical, emotional and moral aspects of caretaking. He also writes about the problems our society faces as medical technology advances and the cost of health care soars but caring for patients no longer seems important. Caregiving is long, hard, unglamorous work--at moments joyous, more often tedious, sometimes agonizing, but it is always rich in meaning. In the face of our current political indifference and the challenge to the health care system, he emphasizes how we must ask uncomfortable questions of ourselves, and of our doctors. To give care, to be "present" for someone who needs us, and to feel and show kindness are deep emotional and moral experiences, enactments of our core values. The practice of caregiving teaches us what is most important in life, and reveals the very heart of what it is to be human.

This New York Times bestseller (more than 200,000 hardcover copies sold) provides a path-breaking lifestyle handbook that shows how to add spirituality, depth, and meaning to modern-day life by nurturing the soul.

Few experiences stir the emotions and throw a person into crisis as illness does. If affects not only the body but also the spirit and soul. Illness is about life and death, fear and hope, love and conflict, spirit and body. And yet, the healthcare system is not structured around these considerations—our doctors and other medical professionals are not trained to deal with the whole person. Care of the Soul In Medicine is Moore’s manifesto about the future of healthcare. In this new vision of care, Moore speaks to the importance of healing a person rather than simply treating a body. He gives advice to both healthcare providers and patients for maintaining dignity and humanity. He provides spiritual guidance for dealing with feelings of mortality and threat, encouraging patients to not only take an active part in healing but also to view illness as a positive passage to new awareness. While we don’t fully understand the extent to which healing depends on attitude; it has been shown that healing needs to focus on more than the body. The future of medicine is not only in new technical developments and research discoveries; it is also in appreciating the state of soul and spirit in illness.

A Soul to Care: A Blessing that came from Trouble is a nonfictional story of an Original GIT (Gangster in Training) that came from the G code of Northwest Miami-Dade County. The book tells the tale of GIT's life post incarceration as a juvenile offender to rising above the obstacles in the street life to achieving a Masters of Science Degree in Nursing. The concept of a nurse being born and not made is shown in this book by starting with this young man's caring acts as a teenage drug dealer and his experiences in the drug game that shaped GIT into trusting his intuition and applying the standard ethical principles of honesty and integrity to gain the respect of others. With the supportive involvement of his father from behind bars and his elderly grandmother at home, allowed him to understand the demand of self-recognition in depicting that he can be the one from an unfortunate environment that can succeed against the odds, and not to resort to gun violence as a means of problem solving. The book focuses on how he identifies his culture of accepting prison and death as normalities for the young in the forms of drug-dealing, substance use and gun violence, and the need to show the power that education, a good heart, and faith in GOD will have within his culture.

The New York Times bestselling author of the classic The Care of the Soul addresses the needs of those providing soul care to others—therapists, psychiatrists, ministers, spiritual directors, teachers, and even friends—sharing his insights for incorporating a spiritual or soulful dimension into their work and practices. Soul Therapy is the culmination of Thomas Moore’s work. In his previous acclaimed books, he explored the soul in important areas of our lives—work, sex, marriage, family, religion, and aging. In this wise guide, he now returns to his core vocation: teaching practitioners—therapists, psychiatrists, ministers, spiritual directors, and others—how to offer soul care to those they assist. A training manual infused with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom, Soul Therapy is divided into five sections: What therapy or “soul care” is and how it works; What soul work is required of the helper to be able to address the needs of others; How to access and move forward the spiritual dimension; How to apply this work to specific areas, such as work, marriage, parenting, or teaching; How to deal with other issues that arise, such as developing a therapeutic style, dealing with one’s shadow, and the need for self-care. Profound yet practical, enlightened yet grounded in real-world experience, Soul Therapy will become a definitive resource for caregivers and practitioners for years to come.

A fascinating and poignant memoir of the body and its care, told through the experiences of a young nurse. As a teenager, Molly Case underwent an operation that saved her life. Nearly a decade later, she finds herself in the operating room again—this time as a trainee nurse. She learns to care for her patients, sharing not only their pain, but also life-affirming moments of hope. In doing so, she offers a compelling account of the processes that keep them alive, from respiratory examinations to surgical prep, and of the extraordinary moments of human connection that sustain both nurse and patient. In rich, lyrical prose, Case illustrates the intricacies of the human condition through the hand of a stranger offered in solace, a gentle word in response to fear and anger, or the witnessing of a person’s last breaths. It is these moments of empathy, in the extremis of human experience, that define us as people. But when Molly’s father is admitted to the cardiac unit where she works, the professional and the personal suddenly collide. Weaving together medical history, art, memoir, and science, How to Treat People beautifully explores the oscillating rhythms of life and death in a tender reminder that we can all find meaning in being, even for a moment, part of the lives of others.

Soul Care explores seven principles that can lead to lasting transformation and freedom for all who struggle with a broken, damaged, and sin-stained soul. Brokenness grasps for the soul of humanity. We are broken body, soul, and spirit, and we need the healing touch of Jesus. Soul Care explores seven principles that are profound healing tools of God: securing your identity, repentance, breaking family sin patterns, forgiving others, healing wounds, overcoming fears, and deliverance. Dr. Rob Reimer challenges readers to engage in an interactive, roll-up-your-sleeves and get messy process -- a journey of self-reflection, Holy Spirit inspiration, deep wrestling, and surrender. It is a process of discovering yourself in true community and discovering God as He pierces through the layers of your heart. Life change is hard. But these principles, when packaged together and lived out, can lead to lasting transformation, freedom, and a healthy soul. Soul Care encourages you to gather a small group of comrades in arms, read and process together, open your souls to one another, access the presence and power of God together, and journey together into the freedom and fullness of Christ.

To what extent should spiritual information be part of a patient’s medical assessment? How should physicians respond when patients refuse life-saving care on religious grounds? Should doctors pray with their patients? Questions such as these raise deeper ones about the goals of medicine and the nature of healing. In a set of engaging and candid essays, The Soul of Medicine explores the role and influence of spirituality in clinical practice, professionalism, and medical education. The contributors to this volume approach this topic from their own spiritual perspectives—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, New Age / Eclectic, secular, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Scientist. Their thought-provoking essays provide rich insights not only into the needs of patients with various world views but also into how spirituality influences the practice of medicine. When their own spiritual issues arise in medical practice, physicians rely on their professionalism, ethics, and education. To better understand how various world views are incorporated into clinical work, doctors must ask themselves—as these contributors have—a series of important questions: What insights about life and healing does your faith provide? How does your faith challenge or reinforce contemporary medicine? How do you assess and address spirituality in clinical practice? How do your own beliefs influence your interactions with patients? The Soul of Medicine encourages medical students and practitioners to recognize the spiritual dimensions of medicine, to consider how these dimensions inform their own education and practice, and to be compassionate about their patients’—and their own—religious beliefs.