Caring for Self & Others

Advanced Praise

A literary oxygen mask and a paean to health care workers, psychiatrist David Kopacz’s understanding self-help book illustrates how relatable and treatable issues like burnout are.

—FOREWORD REVIEWS, reviewed by Stephanie Marrie (read full review below)

Caring for Self & Others is a comprehensive guide that offers 31 transformative practices and meditations to nurture your body, mind, and spirit. Whether you seek to cultivate self-awareness, combat burnout, or find solace in times of suffering, this book provides a diverse range of techniques, from reflective journaling to creative expression, to support your growth journey.

Dr. David R. Kopacz’s book is a beacon of hope for healthcare workers grappling with burnout and fatigue. Drawing upon his extensive medical background, Dr. Kopacz offers a refreshing perspective on addressing the challenges faced by those in the healthcare industry.

In a world still reeling from the aftershocks of the pandemic, this book serves as a guiding light for individuals seeking to rejuvenate their passion and purpose in their noble profession. Join in welcoming this invaluable resource that promises to inspire, uplift, and empower all who turn its pages.

—MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, reviewed by Suzie Housley

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

It is a healing experience to read the beautiful 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 teaches and inspirits 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 Professor/Dean Emerita, University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing and author of Caring Science as Sacred Science

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 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 is versed in worldwide healing traditions where illness is approached as a loss of soul and healing involves its restoration. Caring for Self & Others 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, Lesley University Professor Emeritus and author of Art as Medicine, Art Heals, Imagination in Action, and other books.

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 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

Caring for Self & Other 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 employed the ideas and exercises in his own life that reveal the depth of his commitment to caring.

—John (Jack) Miller, PhD professor at the University of Toronto and author of Education and the Soul

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, and bestselling author of The Great Work of Your Life

About the Book

Unlock the Power of Compassion to Transform Your Life and
the Lives of Others with Caring for Self & Others by David R. Kopacz, MD