Ann Cason

Circles of Care: How to Set Up Quality Home Care for Our Elders
By Ann Cason (Shambhala Publications, 2001)

Review by Jan McGilliard, Associate for Older Adult Ministries, Synod of the Mid-Atlantic

At a time in history when one-quarter of American families are involved in caregiving, Ann Cason's book brings a holistic perspective to a tender subject. The Circle of Care refers to all who may become involved in a caring situation: family and helpers, friends and neighbors, health, legal, and religious professionals, even the mail carrier, grocer, or hairdresser. It also embraces the bevy of feelings and events that accompany providing or receiving care.

Cason's vast experience and deep compassion permeate the pages of this excellent guide to caring for someone in their own home. All aspects of care (physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual) are considered and a team approach is advised. Practical, realistic examples fortify the topics which include: arrangements of daily care, assembling a care team, helping the elder accept their new life; enriching the elder's environment, working with mood swings, confusion, and memory loss; easing the transition to a nursing home; caring for and being with the dying.

We all want to age with grace and dignity. Ann Cason reminds us that it is best done with a circle of care. A good companion book is Reeve Lindberg's No More Words, a memoir of her mother's last years. Anne Morrow Lindberg's care was overseen by Ann Cason.

Awakening the Heart: East/West Approaches to Psychotherapy and the Healing Relationship
Edited by John Welwood (Shambhala Publications, 1983)

(A chapter of this book is written by Ann Cason)

Can a meditative practice assist and promote the healing relationship between psychotherapist and patient? The notable contributors to this practical book draw on a wide range of Eastern and Western disciplines psychoanalysis, Gestalt, Aikido, and various Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist contemplative traditions to show that it can. What they propose is a meeting between the Western psychotherapeutic approach grounded in working with the personal problems and the need to carve out a strong awareness of self and Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health for those who know how to find it. They show that joining psychotherapy with meditation can mutually awaken the hearts of both therapist and client, sparking them both to open more fully.

Ann Cason, Jacob Needleman, Erich Fromm, Robin Skynner, Ram Dass, Karl Sperber, Roger Walsh, Chögyam Trungpa, and Thomas Hora are among the contributors.