Healing the Healers with Dr. Wendy Lau

Healing the Healers with Dr. Wendy LauIn this deeply reflective and heartfelt episode of The Conn Job, host Dr. Ann Conn sits down with Dr. Wendy Lau to explore the emotional, spiritual, and systemic realities of practicing medicine today.Dr. Lau shares her transformative journey from emergency medicine physician in New York to becoming a Zen priest at Upaya Zen Center, where she now helps clinicians reconnect with compassion, embodiment, and meaning in medicine. Together, Dr. Conn and Dr. Lau discuss physician burnout, moral injury, compassion training, embodiment practices, and the urgent need for healing spaces within healthcare.The conversation weaves personal stories, wisdom from meditation and spiritual practice, reflections on the COVID and HIV pandemics, and practical tools clinicians can use to sustain themselves while working in an increasingly corporate medical system.This episode is an honest and moving exploration of what it means to remain deeply human while caring for others.In This Episode, They Discuss:Why Dr. Wendy Lau left emergency medicine and found healing through Zen practiceThe hidden emotional cost of modern medicine and physician burnoutThe concept of “moral injury” in healthcareHow medical training disconnects clinicians from their bodies and humanityThe importance of embodiment, meditation, and introspection for physiciansCompassion vs. empathy — and why compassion is renewableThe GRACE framework for compassionate clinical careNavigating grief, helplessness, and systemic dysfunction in medicineWhy physicians need community, debriefing, and spaces for honest conversationThe role of retreats and spiritual practice in sustaining healthcare workersHow clinicians can compassionately respect their own limitationsAbout Dr. Wendy LauDr. Wendy Lau is an emergency physician, meditation teacher, Zen priest, and author of The Inner Practice of Medicine. Through her work with Upaya Zen Center, she teaches clinicians how to cultivate compassion, resilience, embodiment, and self-stewardship in the face of suffering and systemic challenges in healthcare.Her work focuses on helping healers reconnect with meaning, presence, and humanity in clinical practice.Key Takeaways from the ConversationCompassion is not performative — it is trainable and restorative.Physicians are often trained to suppress their humanity rather than work skillfully with it.Burnout is not simply an individual failure; it is often a response to systemic dysfunction.Embodiment practices help clinicians reconnect with themselves and their patients.Healing spaces for physicians and healthcare workers are essential.Community and honest conversation can transform isolation into connection.Mentioned in This EpisodeThe Inner Practice of Medicine by Dr. Wendy LauThe GRACE compassion training modelBeing With Dying clinician retreatsPhysician moral injury and self-stewardshipMeditation and embodiment practices for healthcare workers“Compassion is not just beneficial to the person receiving it — it also nourishes the person giving it.”If This Episode Resonated With You…Please share it with a physician, nurse, therapist, caregiver, or healthcare worker who may need this conversation right now. Healing the healers matters.Connect further with Dr Ann Conn:Website: https://www.annconnmd.comRegister for my free webinar: Reversing Chronic Migraine: Your Path to Real Recovery Starts Here: https://annconnmd.mykajabi.com/PreventingandReversingChronicMigraineLearn At Pinnacle & Earn CME: https://learnatpinnacle.com/educationSubscribe to newsletter: https://annconnmd.activehosted.com/f/7 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@annconnmdInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/annconnmd/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574820459419The Conn Job Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conn-job/id1853713314