Compassionate Communication, Embodied Aboutness, and Homeless Young Adults

This qualitative project draws from the experiences of homeless young adults in nonprofit organizations in an effort to deepen our understanding of compassionate communication and improve human services. The young adults identify four communication practices as particularly compassionate: presence, nonverbal immediacy, organizational immediacy, and acts of service. Together, this set of practices constitutes “embodied aboutness,” which I define as making one’s body about the other. These practices broaden our understanding of compassion by highlighting the way bodies are interpreted in service delivery. Embodied aboutness informs us how to communicate compassionately in social justice contexts and beyond.