Elizabeth Bishop is the creator of The Conscious Service Approach™, a research-based set of principles designed to enhance both the experience of service providers and the quality of service they offer. Bishop’s professional background includes more than forty years in human service. Her experience ranges from facility- to community-based services and from direct service provision to management and leadership responsibilities. She has specialized in developmental services, brain injury rehabilitation, and mental health programs. She has taught at the post-secondary level for more than twenty-five years, including within formal academic programs, continuing education, and professional development training. As the founder of Elizabeth Bishop Consulting, she facilitates an ongoing discussion about what it means to be of service through her regular blogs, social media presence, workshops, and online courses.
As an educator in the field of health sciences, I often get asked by my students questions about how I got here , and how did my motivations and values shape my career trajectory. I often have stressed the need to follow my gut, and the challenges in maintaining balance when you literally want to change the world. I have often wished there could be a resource to support their exploration into their own sense of purpose and abilities, while at the same time filling the gap that is need in the 'real-world', without burning out. This book is the guide I have been looking for as it encourages curiosity and a holistic approach to service. I will definitely be recommending this book to my students, who are aspiring health professionals, to help them promote their own wellbeing while becoming curious about their own journey to conscious service. --Paola Ardiles; Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University ...fosters what may be a new generation of thought for training our future healthcare providers to be Knowledgeable, Skillful, Dutiful and Altruistic. Conscious Service would be a useful addition to Medical Humanities, Community Science, and Bedside Rounds for all healthcare professionals. The future livelihood of the healthcare professions, may benefit greatly from the contents herein. --Dr. Brian W. Tobin, Ph.D., Assoc Dean, Dept Chair, Professor of Medical Education, Biomedical Science, Family and Community Medicine, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine. USCSOMG[NL1], PLFSOM, MUSM, AECOM. (ret) Executive Director, Synergy Global Health Foundation, Inc. Washington, DC. (pres) As a Social Worker, I have worked in various aspects of burnout prevention for over 25 years as an educator and clinician. Conscious Service offers a fresh and meaningful perspective on what it means to serve others while honouring the self. Elizabeth Bishop offers a holistic invitation into a deeper understanding of what Conscious Service truly means and how to achieve it. Her thoughtful storytelling combined with calls to reflection and action, are both informative and inspiring. While this is a book about service, it is ultimately a resonating call to helpers to come home to themselves in loving, compassionate and caring ways. This work speaks to the mind, body, heart, and spirit of helpers, asking provocative questions that encourage those of service to remember the self. Bishop invites us into a pilgrimage of self-connection. She asserts that compassion doesn't make us tired but rather overextension of the self is what exhausts us. If you want to sustain meaning and increase satisfaction in your service work, and you want to avoid patterns of abandoning yourself that can happen easily to those of us who serve the needs of others, this empowering book is for you. --Lynda Monk, MSW, RSW, CPCC, Director of the International Association for Journal Writing