For clinicians exposed daily to pervasive suffering, death, and moral conflict in their work, maintaining composure, courage, and resilience is especially difficult and can lead to moral distress. In this experiential, interactive workshop, we will present collaborative work, supported by the Mind & Life Institute, between clinicians, philosophers, and leaders in contemplative practice and neuroscience. We will showcase a theoretical framework in which the challenges of moral distress are analyzed and an understanding of its moral costs are sharpened and expanded. We will identify promising strategies based on social psychology and neuroscience that have been pilot tested with clinicians in an academic medical center. We will demonstrate simple contemplative practices aimed at stabilizing the emotional and mental continuum so that courage, compassion, and resilience can arise to support moral responsiveness and morally grounded action.
