Gresham lecturer urges compassion as a centerpiece of professional — and personal — life

Ginny Stoffel grew up surrounded by guilt. A child of an Irish-Catholic family, it was in her blood.

She found compassion helped ease her burden. As she transitioned from student to teacher, instructing occupational therapy students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the past 40 years, she realized compassion served her role tremendously across multiple disciplines.

From self-care to classroom work, and from research to leadership within her discipline, compassion has grown from an interest to a genuine way of living her life.

Such passion led her to develop a personal definition of compassion, which she shared with her audience last month at the 17th annual Glen E. Gresham Visiting Professorship and Lecture.

“Compassion, for me, has become an interest ... probably more based on my lived experience and the experiences of other people near me,” she said. “When compassion was present, what a difference that made in the ultimate lessons learned in the grace and the respect that a person feels when they’re handled in a manner where someone not only notices what’s happening to them but cares about what’s happening to them.”

Compassion’s presence in self-care took center stage during her talk, as Stoffel laid out eight different dimensions where compassion toward oneself could make all the difference in the world.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, there’s a need for compassion from everyone in many different aspects, like emotional compassion, which she said is a huge aspect of self-care. Recognizing when we’re struggling within ourselves, and understanding how to address it when it occurs, is a significant step, she said.

Then there’s physical compassion or having a true understanding of where you are and not holding such a high standard over your head that you get weighed down by not accomplishing goals associated with whatever you’re attempting to do. Instead, she said, find what you love and do it.

“If you compare yourself to an elite athlete, you’ll probably fall really short, right?” Stoffel said. “When you think about how to use self-compassion as you plan for your physical well-being, find the things you want that you love doing and do them. I mean, really, whatever they are, do them.”

She also laid out compassionate self-care approaches to social, spiritual, financial and occupational well-being.

Her time in the classroom and in research positions also drew her attention, speaking of how to lead with compassion in those professional settings. In research, she said, compassion can play a large role in identifying participants and making sure they feel safe and secure in participating.

Identifying people who would make great participants can be a challenge, she admitted.

“Especially if you’re dealing with sensitive topics where people feel uncomfortable even identifying themselves as part of whatever that group is, much less being able to share what’s happening with what they’re experiencing,” Stoffel said. “So, really being sensitive to the challenges … to saying yes to being part of a study or going through the informed consent process and making sure you have it in a language that is clear and understandable and that gives people that open door if they want to opt out.”

How a study is carried out, including how researchers broach intimate information through questions, can be challenging. Understanding a person’s desired pronouns or their affiliations — and respecting their decisions regarding these topics — can help them feel welcome and invite them to share more with researchers when the time comes, she said.

In the end, she said, it comes down to graciously giving thanks and demonstrating humility. That will, she noted, help win the day.

The Gresham Visiting Professorship in Rehabilitation Science was endowed by the late Albert Rekate and his wife, Linda, and is presented by the Department of Rehabilitation Science in the School of Public Health and Health Professions.