The Importance of Caregivers Being Heard with Dr. Edward Smink (Part 2 of 3)

All Home Care Matters

Enriched Life Home Care Services

Education, Health & Fitness

5.0 • 88 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All Home Care Matters welcomes Dr. Smink for the second part of his three part mini-series on The Soul of Caregiving.

In part 2 we explore the importance of caregivers being heard and the importance of being able to share and tell their story.

In part 1 of the mini-series, Dr. Smink explored the tension that most caregivers experience between service to others and self-care which he calls Soul-Care. Being heard implies an understanding of one’s story and the trust needed to communicate it. Navigating through the three cultural taboos challenges the caregiver to explore their interior strengths and values that is the ground or base of one’s being. Smink calls this Soul, the center of one’s being where body and the spirit meet. It is here that we are most human. Like a gem radiating different hues, Soul is multifaceted with unique characteristics and meanings.

There are archetypal underpinnings to soul that Dr. Smink calls the principle of life. Caregivers struggle to listen so as to hear those they serve. These same skills of listening can be applied to being open and welcoming to hearing what is stirring within one’s Soul. There is a logos, or rational aspect to caregiving and also a creative aspect called mythos to caregiving. Just as Soul-Care is the antidote to compassion fatigue, Smink argues, so too is the ability to reflect on one’s experience the key to healing and transformation. Developing attitudes of hospitality and understanding oneself as a wounded healer assist in this process.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to All Home Care Matters, the show where we discuss all things home care,
0:06.0	with discussions on important age-related matters and topics.
0:10.1	Brought to you by Enriched Life Home Care Services,
0:13.3	the number one rated home care provider in Michigan by Top-rated Local.
0:27.4	Hello, and welcome back to All Home Care Matters.
0:31.3	If this is your first time visiting us here at the show, we want to say thank you for taking time out to be with us today.
0:33.1	We appreciate how valuable everyone's time is, and that's why we try and make each episode here
0:37.9	at all home care matters, something that will hopefully matter to you. Today, we are welcoming
0:43.2	back, Dr. Edward Smeek, the author of The Soul of Caregiving, a caregiver's Guide to Healing and
0:49.7	Transformation for Part 2 of our mini-series. Welcome, Dr. Smink. Thank you. It's great to be with you and to share some of the thoughts I have learned by being a caregiver.
1:01.9	Yes, yes. And we know you are also the author of the book, The Soul of Caregiving, A Caregiver's Guide to Healing and Transformation.
1:09.8	And for part two, for our listeners and viewers, we're going to be talking about the
1:14.7	importance of being heard and sharing your story.
1:18.4	Part one, we discovered and learned about the importance of identifying compassion fatigue
1:23.8	as well as caregiver burnout and some of the things people can do to help prevent those
1:28.7	things from happening. So, Dr. Ed, why is it important for caregivers to be heard and to be
1:36.6	able to share their story? Again, caregivers in general don't share their story. And what happens is it just keeps bottling up.
1:49.2	They have something to say. They have an experience to be shared. And if you allow yourself
1:58.9	to speak openly about your experience,
2:04.9	what happens is it helps in the healing process,
2:08.4	especially if you're heard.
2:10.2	So the important thing is,
	...

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