Compassion is a trickster. It shows up when least expected. In many cases, it shows up even when unwanted. Wait a minute! Within the context of the healing arts, how could compassion possibly be an unwanted thing? Well, according to the actions of many of our teachers, even though they pay lip-service to the idea, compassion unleashed is considered a detriment to effective care.

Compassion, as defined by The Free Dictionary is "Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it." The "Deep awareness" part is the part where, in the midst of doing the work of treating our patient we feel their pain. To be compassionate means, "to share the suffering of others."

Paradoxically, though many disciplines acknowledge the value of compassion, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of relating to our charges, we are warned away from becoming "emotionally involved." You cannot share the suffering of others without sharing an emotional link with them.

The dominant paradigm of our current-day medical system is geared toward the discouragement of compassion rather than its utilization as a tool of healing. This is not limited to allopathic medicine. It surfaces in whatever modality is taught Western-style, which is a head-oriented, facts and figures, symptoms and treatment, problem-to-be-solved approach of relating to a person and his or her dis-ease.

Time after time, we are told, "You can't do your job if you make it personal." Compassion is nothing if not personal. It puts you who are right now into the experience of the person to whom you are relating. Within the context of the human experience the perceived, hierarchical differences between you and that person dissolve. What remains are two human beings facing their maker together.

As children we were taught to be compassionate with others. So many of us started out in our professions to express that very heartfelt drive. But, as soon as we took our place in what could be called "the compassionate arts" (which, incidentally could very well include firefighters, police personnel, lawyers and politicians), we are more than warned to stay away from that territory; it is virtually bred out of us.

How? Through a persistent and repetitive exposure to head-based approaches that make us more and more distant from the human beings in our care. But we all know, it never really works.

Burnout is very often the by-product of having experiences of compassion slip in to our controlled environments. If repeated often enough, or with the right degree of intensity, because we are not taught how to integrate the experiences into our lives, we often find ourselves buried in emotions that do not fade away, but actually intensify over time, complicating, if not crippling, our lives.

Compassion by its very nature takes us out of our heads and into the realm of relating to our experience and the person we're serving on a visceral, level. Because we are taught to distance ourselves from our experiences of deep, personal contact with our charges, when we feel ourselves affected, we doubt our own ability to be effective in our work because that's what we've been taught.

The systems that define our professions are so concerned with getting the facts straight that they place almost zero emphasis on the emotional well-being of their practitioners. But more insidious is that these same systems passively discourage us from turning to each other for support. Even talking about the wonder, the despair, the pain and the transcendent moments of our experiences with each other is discouraged because that could indicate professional weakness.

The problem with compassion is that we are not provided support to learn how to use it as a fuel that supercharges everything we offer.