M I N D & L I F E I N S T I T U T E
A Call for Care and
Compassion in Our Schools
Brooke D. Lavelle Heineberg, Ph.D.
Senior Education Consultant
Pro-Social Education
• Character education
• Service learning
• Moral education
• Cooperative learning
• Social and emotional
learning
• School climate
• Mindfulness
• Transformative
education
The Initiative: A Year in Review
Call to Care
We have a
natural capacity
to be caring and
compassionate.
These capacities
are nurtured
implicitly
through
unconditional
caring
relationships and
explicitly through
compassion training.
Relational Care
Three Modes of Care
Receiving Care
Helps us learn to connect
with sources of care in our
lives. Through continual
repetition, educators
practice embodying
experiences of safety,
security and basic well-
being.
Caring Moment Practice
Cultivating Self-Care
Helps us learn to host
our own thoughts,
feelings and emotional
experiences with
kindness, openness,
warmth, and deep
acceptance.
Compassionate Mindfulness of
Feelings
Obstacles and Fears of Self-Care
Obstacles to Self-Care
• Fatigue
• Time
• Other commitments
• Unexpected life demands
• Unrealistic expectations
• Spending time with loved ones
• Full plates
• Seasonal changes
• Prioritizing
• Urgency vs. Important
• Hard to see immediate results
M I N D & L I F E I N S T I T U T E
Fears of Self-Care
• Fear of exposing emotions
• Fear of losing composure
• Feel guilty or selfish taking time
for self
• Fear of difficult emotions
• Fear of receiving
• Feeling unworthy
• Fear that I won’t meet
obligations
• Fear of judgment
• Fear of failure
• Opportunity costs
Helps us learn to see
others more deeply
and connect with their
potential, beyond our
limiting thoughts of
them that inhibit our
caring capacity.
Extending Care
Communities of Care
Call to Care: Educator’s Program
Summer Intensive
Care-Course
Community of Care
Classroom Guide The integrated educator and student
programs provide specific investigations
and reflective learning experiences for
the development of our caring
capacities.
The C2C program is imbued with
principles of honoring local values,
respecting and empowering educators
and students, and supporting
community.
Care in Context