In an era of transition and tension in American health care, Dorothy M. Owens offers a model of empathic communication that benefits both patients and physicians. Drawing from concepts in the domains of psychology and theology, she constructs a model of empathy that is ethical and reciprocal. An integrated model of empathy recognizes the physical, psychological, spiritual, and social nature of human beings. Empathy is a clinically useful, time-effective communication skill that can be taught in medical and pastoral education. Dr. Owens's unique approach to empathy is applicable to other professional and personal relationships as well.
A fresh, healing wind blows from this volume into the chaotic, hi-tech, depersonalizing world of current sickness care. It is a must-read for physicians, nurses, other health care professionals, and students of these therapeutic disciplines. But it is also insightfully useful for clergy, lay caregivers, and seminarians, as well as secular caregivers. Dr. Owens gives all of us wounded healers the gift of in-depth, innovative understandings of empathy and suffering, brokenness and caregiving, healing and wholeness, and-very important-the teaching and learning of integrative empathy that nurtures wholeness in both sufferers and healers. -Howard Clinebell, Ph.D., Author, Anchoring Your Well Being: Christian Wholeness in a Fractured World
Dr. Owens has an amazingly intuitive grasp of this complicated problem, as if she has stood in the shoes of both patients and physicians. Her analysis goes to the roots of the problem, including the social, psychological, and theological issues. She provides a background and an understanding that the scholar, physician, and patient can all use. This book should be required reading for everyone intent on improving the interaction between physician and patient. I know of no other book like it. --John Bennett, M.D., M.A.C.P. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
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