The Healing Companion: Simple and Effective Ways Your Presence Can Help People Heal

Rating:
Summary: J. Kane, The Healing Companion
Review: Anyone confronted with the serious sickness of a family member of friend will find this sensitive but unsentimental book invaluable. Jeff Kane not only shows how the emotional support and participation of one's friends and family help the sick person in his or her illness (that is, the social and spiritual disclocation and emotional and psychological suffering caused by the disease), but also gives very concrete, practical suggestions on listening, responding, respecting, and feeling and showing compassion. Dr. Kane's insights about the experience of suffering, the devastation it causes and the opportunities it offers both the sick person and the care-giver for self-knowledge and personal transfromation make this a book to be read and reread time and again.

Rating:
Summary: Provides a solid foundation for understanding and growth
Review: Caregivers who live with a severely ill family member or friend receive a guide on how they can handle life-threatening and life-changing illness. From how to help others heal using one's presence and support to understanding differences between healing and curing, this is packed with advice from the author's own work with cancer support groups, and provides a solid foundation for understanding and growth.

Rating:
Summary: J. Kane, The Healing Companion
Review: For anyone who has stood beside a hospital bed wondering, "What can I do to help?" Dr. Jeff Kane's THE HEALING COMPANION is an invaluable new resource. Beginning with beautifully told stories of people redefining their lives after a diagnosis of cancer, Dr. Kane shares the essence of his decades of work exploring the nature and sources of human suffering. He then goes on to offer practical techniques, which anyone with a willing heart and open mind can learn, to alleviate suffering and aid healing. A remarkable book whose applications go far beyond the boundaries of medical uses, and can have a profound transformative impact on how we perceive the meaning of our lives.

Rating:
Summary: Great Guide
Review: Have you ever read a book that felt like you were having a conversation with a good friend? Jeff Kane's new book, The Healing Companion makes me feel comforted, entertained, encouraged and enlightened; just as if I'd spent time talking with a good friend.

The book could be considered as a guide toward offering sick loved ones our healing presence. This guidance is valid for anyone relating to someone who is sick and is just as helpful to doctors, nurses and counselors as it is to family members and anyone who has a loved one who is sick.

A quote from page three says "This book will guide you toward offering sick loved ones your healing presence. By learning to ask them exactly how they're suffering and help them express their feelings thoroughly, you'll encourage an atmosphere of honesty. You'll move toward a perspective in which whatever happens physically, the emotional turmoil surrounding it will settle. All involved will benefit from increasing serenity."

I found especially helpful Jeff's discussion of how sick people suffer. He talks about really listening to their suffering and hearing their fears, anxieties, confusion, depression and rages. He says "I learned that people get emotional when they're sick and that fear and anger and despair aren't abnormal; they're a natural feature of sickness. In fact, I'd worry about the mental health of sick people who weren't affected by their consequent feelings. Hearing many hundreds of stories, I gradually learned that people don't generally suffer from their disease as much as from their emotions, the reactions their disease ignites in them." (page seven)

The rest of the chapters in the book are just as juicy and relevant as the above examples. In "Speaking With TLC", Jeff encourages speaking (only after much listening) with truth, leanness and compassion. He gives examples and practical questions to ask ourselves to pass the "TLC" test.

My two favorite chapters are "Welcoming Mystery" and "Healing Yourself". The first deals with the existential questions that illness can stir and the second with "continual" self care. What profound encouragement both offer for living in this world.

I truly enjoyed reading this book (and have read several sections more than once). The wonderful stories of courage and healing inspired me to be a better listener, a better friend and even a better person. Thank you Jeff.

Rating:
Summary: Great Guide
Review: Have you ever read a book that felt like you were having a conversation with a good friend? Jeff Kane's new book, The Healing Companion makes me feel comforted, entertained, encouraged and enlightened; just as if I'd spent time talking with a good friend.

The book could be considered as a guide toward offering sick loved ones our healing presence. This guidance is valid for anyone relating to someone who is sick and is just as helpful to doctors, nurses and counselors as it is to family members and anyone who has a loved one who is sick.

A quote from page three says "This book will guide you toward offering sick loved ones your healing presence. By learning to ask them exactly how they're suffering and help them express their feelings thoroughly, you'll encourage an atmosphere of honesty. You'll move toward a perspective in which whatever happens physically, the emotional turmoil surrounding it will settle. All involved will benefit from increasing serenity."

I found especially helpful Jeff's discussion of how sick people suffer. He talks about really listening to their suffering and hearing their fears, anxieties, confusion, depression and rages. He says "I learned that people get emotional when they're sick and that fear and anger and despair aren't abnormal; they're a natural feature of sickness. In fact, I'd worry about the mental health of sick people who weren't affected by their consequent feelings. Hearing many hundreds of stories, I gradually learned that people don't generally suffer from their disease as much as from their emotions, the reactions their disease ignites in them." (page seven)

The rest of the chapters in the book are just as juicy and relevant as the above examples. In "Speaking With TLC", Jeff encourages speaking (only after much listening) with truth, leanness and compassion. He gives examples and practical questions to ask ourselves to pass the "TLC" test.

My two favorite chapters are "Welcoming Mystery" and "Healing Yourself". The first deals with the existential questions that illness can stir and the second with "continual" self care. What profound encouragement both offer for living in this world.

I truly enjoyed reading this book (and have read several sections more than once). The wonderful stories of courage and healing inspired me to be a better listener, a better friend and even a better person. Thank you Jeff.

Rating:
Summary: This Is A Good Companion
Review: We often confuse curing with healing, and don't know what to say when someone is very sick. In this sweet little book, Dr. Kane tells us through studies and stories how medical science can do the former, but how we can do the latter. For anyone, anywhere, anytime. It comes down to simply listening and being present. And it doesn't involve fixing. What a concept. Read it. It's inspiring.