Night Call: Embracing Compassion and Hope in a Troubled World

Caring for our family members, friends, and others is a central part of a rewarding life. For those in healing and helping professions such as medicine, nursing, education, psychotherapy, social work, ministry, and the military, the potential for a meaningful way of being may even become more possible. But, compassion is not easy. At times, concern for others can be personally devastating when we don't possess the right attitude and approach. Reaching out (and reflectively within) without being pulled down requires the wisdom that only arises out of the right combination of humility and knowledge.

Night Call offers the stories and principles gleaned over many years of writing and mentoring for those in the helping and healing professions. The stories are offered in ways that foster compassionate caring while encouraging initiative in those who seek to personally deepen and share their lives with others -- especially in times of significant need. With this in mind, Dr. Wicks presents information on:
- being a healing presence
- mining fruits of the failures all of us must experience at times
- the need to enjoy the daily "crumbs of alonetime"
- the importance of a spirit of "unlearning"
- developing a simple realistic self-care program
- valuing informal or formal mentoring
- recognizing the "3 calls" to which we must respond to as we psychologically develop
- honoring life's most elusive psychological virtue (humility)

Purposely brief, the chapters, as well as the sections in the "personal resiliency retreat" section at the end of the book, have as their goal a reconsideration of values, signature strengths, and simple approaches to living a resilient, rewarding life. Rather than presenting new breakthroughs, Night Call is designed to dust off what most of us already know, at some level, so we can freshly view the key approaches and techniques that provide increased psychological self-awareness and a potentially healthier sense of presence to others. The themes offered may have been forgotten, or become undervalued/set aside because of some of society's dysfunctional norms or unhelpful family influences. In response, this simple, countercultural book combines the value of essential self-compassion with caring for others in ways that provide the impetus for further exploration of a fuller narrative for both the readers of this work and unforeseen opportunities as well for those who are fortunate enough to cross their paths.

Author: Robert Wicks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 10/02/2017
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780190669638

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 09/15/2017
Choice 09/01/2018

About the Author
Robert J. Wicks, PsyD, received his doctorate in psychology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital and is Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Maryland. He has published more than 50 books for professionals and the general public, including Perspective: The Calm within the Storm (Oxford, 2014); Bounce: Living the Resilient Life (Oxford, 2010); and Riding the Dragon. Dr. Wicks has lectured on the importance of resilience, self-care, and maintaining a healthy perspective in Hanoi, Beijing, Port au Prince, Johannesburg, Phnom Penh, and Budapest as well as at the Mayo Clinic, Harvard's Children's Hospital and Harvard Divinity School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the U.S. Air Force Academy, on Capitol Hill to Members of Congress and their Chiefs of Staff and most recently in Beirut to persons living and working in Aleppo, Syria. He has also served on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Counseling Association's Division on Spirituality, Ethics, and Values. In 2006, he was recipient of the first annual Alumni Award for Excellence in Professional Psychology from Widener University. In the U.S. military, Dr. Wicks served as a Marine Corps Officer.