Thesis advisor: Thomas H. Groome / Thesis advisor: John J. Makransky / The premise of this dissertation is that Buddhism must inculturate to meet the context of contemporary North America. Given the widespread interest in the application of Buddhist-derived ideas and practices in a host of secular settings, the capacity for teachers to engage with new ideas and disciplines will be crucial to the tradition's continued relevance. Because there is a high demand for and interest in Buddhist-derived programming in secular spaces, the number of individuals and organizations striving to meet this demand is mushrooming. This trend, coupled with a dearth of professional training programs and accreditation processes means that not only are there an eclectic array of approaches being used to teach meditation, but there is also minimal discourse engaging the crucial question of what constitutes effective pedagogy or adequate training processes for teachers. Chapter 1 establishes the need for the inculturation of Buddhism. This imperative for adaptation raises fundamental questions regarding how to best evaluate the authenticity of changes to traditional teaching methods. In Chapters 2 and 3, the Buddhist doctrine of skillful means is explored with an eye toward distilling guiding principles for analyzing this process of adaptation of teachings to meet a variety of cultural and personal perspectives. Drawing from Mahayana and pre-Mahayana sutras, traditions of commentary, and contemporary hermeneutics, a set of priorities based on the perspective of the Buddhist tradition is proposed. In Chapter 4, it is established that finding points of relevance to particular cultural concerns such as physical and mental health issues has been a vital component of existing efforts toward secularized meditation programs to date. This chapter concludes by drawing out of such present practices additional guiding principles to advance the process of pedagogical inculturation. Despite the widespread interest in applying meditation to a variety of settings, the pedagogy and philosophy of education behind the various approaches remains largely under-theorized. To fill this need, Chapter 5 establishes a set of guiding principles for pedagogical adaptation, drawing from the tradition's own self-understanding as well as from the insights of Western education as discussed in the prior 4 chapters. Finally, Chapter 6 offers an example of inculturated pedagogy at work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Counselor wellness is an important concept that can be taught in counselor education programs. Nonetheless, counseling interns tend to be at a higher risk for impairment issues due to stressors related to being novice counselors. The stress of engaging in therapeutic relationships with clients, lack of clinical experience, idealistic expectations of the profession, and personal issues can hinder their wellness. It is the responsibility of CACREP programs to incorporate wellness education into counselor training, which includes impairment topics such as compassion fatigue and burnout. The lack of this essential education can impede counseling interns' professional growth; create barriers within the therapeutic relationship, and raises questions about programs' gatekeeping policies. This study surveyed 68 counseling interns of 20 CACREP programs to determine: a) their levels of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout as measured by the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) and, b) their perceptions of their programs' wellness curriculum and their knowledge of programs' nonacademic and retention policies as measured by The Counseling Interns' Perceptions of Wellness Survey (CIPW). Furthermore, this study examined the relationship between interns' perceptions of wellness and their levels of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Descriptive and correlational statistics, and a MANOVA analysis were conducted to answer the research questions. The results demonstrate that a percentage of counseling interns were at a risk for compassion fatigue and burnout while providing therapeutic services to clients. Also, there were interns with low levels of compassion satisfaction. Additionally, there were interns who believed their programs were not educating them about counselor wellness and who were not knowledgeable of their programs' gatekeeping policies. There were positive relationships between interns' perceptions of their programs' wellness education and compassion satisfaction, and between compassion fatigue and burnout. There were negative relationships between wellness education and burnout, and compassion satisfaction and burnout. The results of this study suggest that counselor impairment occurs during training. Likewise, this study has reinforced the need to educate counseling students about impairment topics and wellness strategies. Further results suggest that counselor education programs need to strengthen and restructure gatekeeping policies during counselor training. / Ph. D.

Yes / The nursing profession is being threatened by staff shortages. Catherine Best explains why building resilience from within the profession is vital to safeguarding its future, by keeping newly qualified nurses in the job and preventing emotional ‘burnout’ across disciplines Resilience in nursing has been critiqued and challenged throughout the nursing literature. Trends in nursing have led to many nurses leaving the profession early in their career, often due to the immense pressures that they work under. There are many opinions on how nurses can develop the resilience needed to maintain professional integrity and continue to provide safe and effective care, while attempting to shoulder the considerable impact of political and professional drivers. This not only leaves nurses exhausted but often without hope. By taking collective action, this article argues that nurses may benefit from sharing ideas and learning from others, and in so doing rekindle hope and a belief that things can change.

The purpose of the study was to gain insight into how psychologists experience resiliency, satisfaction, and personal growth despite the challenges (e.g., vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue) of working with trauma survivors. While it cannot be ignored that many psychologists experience negative effects related to working with traumatized clients, it is important to acknowledge the potential to experience resiliency and growth from their work with trauma survivors. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to explore the lived experiences of vicarious resiliency and growth in psychologists who work with trauma survivors. Data was collected through an in-depth individual semi-structured interview with six psychologists. The data generated was transcribed and analyzed using an interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003). Results revealed four major themes: privileging a shared journey, developing purpose and personal growth, deriving positive meaning, and serving humanity with an overarching theme of maintaining resiliency. The current study provided a valuable contribution to the limited literature on psychologists’ ability to foster positive outcomes for themselves through focusing on resiliency, satisfaction, and growth, despite the inherent risks of trauma work. Applications to practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Stress är ett växande samhällsproblem och står för en tredjedel av alla sjukskrivningar i Sverige. Många företag uppger att de inte har metoder för att hantera stress. Därmed finns ett stort behov av effektiva metoder för detta. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) verkar vara en effektiv metod för att minska stress, men verkningsmekanismerna är ej helt fastställda. Både mindfulness och självmedkänsla förefaller kunna ha inverkan på stress. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken relation mindfulness och självmedkänsla har till upplevd stress bland universitetsstudenter samt om något av begreppen har en starkare relation till upplevd stress än det andra. Tre validerade självskattningsinstrument, Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionaire (FFMQ-S) och Perceived Stress Scale-14 (PSS-14), administrerades till 203 universitetsstudenter. I enlighet med förväntningarna fanns det ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan FFMQ och SCS. Regressionsanalyser visade att både FFMQ och SCS predicerade poäng på PSS-14 och att SCS kunde predicera poäng på  PSS-14 i högre grad än FFMQ. Kön var också en signifikant prediktor av poäng på PSS-14, men dess prediktiva värde var ej signifikant när FFMQ och SCS inkluderades i regressionsmodellen. Fyndet tyder på att självmedkänsla är en viktig del i hanteringen av stress och bidrar med en ledtråd i verkningsmekanismerna i MBSR och andra copingstrategier. Mer forskning behövs för att vidare utreda kausalitet och hur de olika komponenterna i självmedkänsla verkar på upplevd stress. / Stress is a growing social problem which accounts for a third of all sick leave in Sweden. Many companies say they do not have methods to manage stress. Thus there is a great need for effective methods to manage stress with. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an effective method to reduce stress, however the mechanisms are not completely understood. Research indicates that Self-compassion seems to have a significant role. Both mindfulness and self-compassion hence seems to be able to have an impact on stress. The purpose of this study is to examine what relationship mindfulness and self-compassion has with perceived stress, and if any of the concepts has a stronger relationship to perceived stress than the other. Three validated self-report instruments, Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Perceived Stress Scale-14 (PSS14), were administered to 203 university students. The collected data was analyzed with regression analysis. In line with expectations, mindfulness and self-compassion correlated. The results also indicated that both FFMQ and SCS can predict PSS-14 scores, and that scores on SCS could predict scores on PSS-14 to a greater extent than FFMQ could. Gender did also significantly predict scores on PSS-14, but it did not have any significant predictive value when SCS and FFMQ was included in the regression analysis. These findings suggests that self-compassion is an important part of managing stress and therefore might be a significant mechanism of action of MBSR and other coping strategies. More research is needed to further investigate causality, and the function of the various components of self-compassion on perceived stress.

The purpose of the study is to investigate social workers experiences of compassion fatigue as well as their thoughts about health and risk factors in the area. The method used is a qualitative interview study in which eight social workers, investigating child welfare matters, were individually interviewed. The study shows that most of the social workers describe their own experiences of burnout but not of secondary traumatic stress. The most important support for not suffer from compassion fatigue is to be supported and the possibility to ventilate with colleagues and managers. However, the social workers consider that the risk of burnout is primarily due to a heavy workload in terms of the number of cases and high staff turnover. Finally, the study indicates that social workers do not have experience of secondary traumatic stress because they are using tools that prevent this. However, the risk of experiencing burnout is high since they have not found strategies for managing workplace stress. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka socialarbetares upplevelser av sympatistress samt deras tankar om frisk- och riskfaktorer inom området. Metoden som använts är en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning där åtta socialarbetare, som utreder barnavårdsärenden, enskilt har intervjuats. Studien visar att de flesta av socialarbetarna beskriver att de har egna upplevelser eller erfarenheter av utbrändhet men inte av sekundär traumatisk stress. Det viktigaste stödet för att inte drabbas av sympatistress, uppger socialarbetarna, vara stöd från och möjligheten att ventilera med kollegor och chefer. Dock anser de att risken för att bli utbränd främst beror på hög arbetsbelastning, i form av mängden ärenden samt hög personalomsättning. Slutligen pekar studien på att socialarbetarna inte har upplevelser av sekundär traumatisk stress då de använder sig av verktyg som förhindrar detta. Dock är risken för att drabbas av utbrändhet hög då de ännu inte funnit strategier för att hantera påfrestningar som är kopplade till arbetsplatsen.

This study used the university discussion-based seminar with the aim of exploring and improving students' experiences of face-to-face group work in Higher Education. The purpose was to devise a pedagogic strategy to address the communicative barriers that extant research and literature suggests often arise between ethnically and/or internationally different student groups in universities. A critical examination of literature relevant to co-operative behaviours in groups was undertaken across disciplines. The result was the assembly and development of a theoretical basis for designing a pedagogy that attends explicitly to compassion in HE teaching, learning and assessment. Compassion is relevant to co-operative behaviours. It is recognised across disciplines and it is valued across cultures. It is defined as the noticing of distress or disadvantaging of others, and then taking action to reduce this. The compassion-focussed pedagogy was then applied in discussion-based seminars across different subjects in a UK university. The study adopted an action research approach, which was divided into two cycles. Cycle 1 was conducted amongst mainly white, local students in a Humanities department where (n=105) students were observed in their seminars, some of whom (n=14) participated in one-to-one interviews or focus groups. Cycle 2 was conducted amongst more diverse cohorts of students in the same HEI's Business department where (n=135) students were observed, some of whom (n=20) participated in one-to-one interviews or focus groups. In total (n=9) seminar tutors were observed and interviewed. Five sampling methods and seven data collection tools were combined to support the use of Template Analysis for comparative, thematic data analysis. Overall, most students made use of the compassion-focused pedagogy, adapting and developing it in seminar discussions to benefit the learning and social experiences of themselves and others. Data from three students helped explore why the pedagogy might not be suitable for all students. There was evidence of a positive impact on seminar academic outcomes in terms of assessment for critical thinking skills, particularly for BME students, although this result is offered cautiously and requires further research. The main indications from the study are that explicit work with the concept of compassion, including overt formal assessment of its use, can be unintrusive on subject material (a tutor concern), ethically appropriate, and beneficial to enhancing social and learning interconnectivity between students. Traditional/ standard categorisations of students as local or international in origin are also found to be extremely problematic and profoundly unhelpful in understanding and unlocking communicative barriers between students.

Background: Providing care to individuals with multifaceted mental health needs can be very demanding and in turn leave mental health professionals at an increased risk for compassion fatigue (CF). Comprised of Burnout (BO), Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), and a lack of Compassion Satisfaction (CS), CF is the state of exhaustion and dysfunction, emotionally, biologically, and physiologically, due to prolonged exposure to compassion stress. CF can leave healthcare providers at an increased risk for experiencing their own health issues, contributing to tardiness and absenteeism, as well as increasing the risks for such adverse effects as clinical and medication errors, poor treatment planning, and decreased patient satisfaction. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the risk factors for CF and describe the perceptions of CF among outpatient mental health providers employed in urban community-based mental health outpatient organization. Method and Sampling: A qualitative descriptive study design utilizing two focus groups, each having four participants was conducted to assess outpatient mental health providers’perceptions of CF. Purposeful sampling of current providers in two community-based mental health outpatient organizations was performed to protect the privacy and enhance the comfort of each participant as they discussed elements of CF. Findings: Five themes were identified from the focus group analysis: the participant’s perceived definition of CF, participant perceptions of prevalence of CF in the mental health setting, participant perceptions regarding the triggers, perceived participant causes of CF, and self-care practices. These results reflect data collected in a mental health setting however, the findings are consistent with current research contributed from other specialties. Conclusion: Personal descriptions of the experiences and insights of these providers expand the current CF literature and will contribute to the development of quality improvement projects committed to reducing compassion fatigue among outpatient mental health providers.

The study focused on claims workers in the short-term insurance industry and on whether their working conditions, such as dealing with traumatised clients and traumatic materials, are affecting them adversely. Equivalent attention fell on underwriting clerks, the comparison group, to ascertain whether they differ significantly from claims workers along the dimensions of compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress as well as self-esteem and optimism/pessimism. These constructs were measured by the ProQOL-RIII - , the Mehrabian MSE – and MOP Scales, after which the scores were analysed. These scores were then compared across the two groups and also in terms of mode of interaction, using parametric statistical procedures. Although no significant differences were found between the two study groups, interesting interaction effects and other findings were nevertheless revealed that shed valuable light on these groups of workers.

High self-compassion has been shown to provide many benefits for overall well-being. Some studies have suggested that the environment in which an individual grew up could have some effect on this trait in adulthood. The present research examined the relationship between the parenting style with which an individual was raised and their later adulthood self-compassion and compassion for others. It was hypothesized that the responsiveness of the parent would be directly related to the way that an individual learns to respond to themselves and others. Authoritative parenting style was expected to be related to higher self-compassion and compassion for others as it is characterized by parents who respond positively to their child. Authoritarian parenting was expected to be related to lower levels of each construct as it is characterized by negative responses to the child’s actions. It was found that both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles are associated with higher levels of self-compassion. The two parenting styles considered to negatively affect children raised in the style, authoritarian and permissive, were found to be related to higher levels of compassion for others. Future research directions for the relationship are discussed.