Mind & Life Podcast

Jenny Mascaro – Compassion in Healthcare

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March 23, 2023

View or download a transcript of this episode

In this episode, Wendy speaks with biological anthropologist and contemplative researcher Jenny Mascaro. Jenny’s work weaves together meditation, compassion, psychology, and healthcare, and moves us toward a deeper understanding of interconnectedness. This conversation covers many topics, including:

Jenny Mascaro, PhD
  • her interest in social cognition in animals – and humans;
  • what compassion is, and how it’s different from empathy;
  • biological basis of compassion, and the role of oxytocin;
  • how social factors and context shape compassion;
  • training compassion and the skills underlying it;
  • understanding self-compassion;
  • the under-appreciated role of hospital chaplains;
  • compassion training for chaplains;
  • preparing for interpersonal interactions;
  • how compassion shows up in language;
  • how compassionate care can help anxiety and depression;
  • responding to healthcare provider stress;
  • how meditation has changed her;
  • and building awareness of interdependence.

Jennifer Mascaro, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, lead scientist for Spiritual Health in the Emory Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at the Winship Cancer Institute. Her research interests center on (1) the variation in and plasticity of human social cognition; and (2) the biology of interconnectedness. To this end, she uses multiple and mixed-methodologies to explore how behavioral, cultural, hormonal, and genetic factors affect prosocial emotions and behaviors, and how these in turn impact health. Ongoing projects include longitudinal investigations of compassion and mindfulness meditation training for frontline healthcare workers and for symptom management in the context of serious illness. Her work is ever collaborative and falls at the interface of medicine, spiritual health, implementation science, neuroscience, medical anthropology, and psychology.

Resources

Faculty website, Emory University
Compassion Centered Spiritual Health
Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT)