Compassion Fatigue and Self-Care

1. Compassion Fatigue and Self-Care Maggie Brett, L.C.S.W. June 15, 2012

2. That which is to give light must endure burning. --Viktor Frankl

3. Agenda • Self-assessment • Stress, Burn-out, and Compassion Fatigue • Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue • Importance of Self-Care • Self-Care ideas • Wrap-up of series and evaluations

4. Self-Assessment:Professional Quality of Life Scale (PROQOL) Developed by B. HudnallStamm(2009-2012)to assess Compassion Satisfaction, Burn-out, and Secondary Traumatic Stress

5. Scoring

6. Stress, Burn-out, Compassion Fatigue • Stress: a normal response to a perceived threat or upset to one’s equilibrium; there is optimum stress (don’t want to be understressed or overstressed) • Burn-out: the psychological response to too much stress; “experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest” • Compassion Fatigue: a combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual depletion associated with caring for others

7. Vicarious Trauma Vicarious Trauma, or Secondary Traumatic Stress, is a contributing factor to compassion fatigue. It is the transformation of your inner self as a result of being empathically engaged with someone who has experienced trauma. A helping professional is especially vulnerable when he/she has experienced trauma.

8. Compassion Fatigue Relationship is the cornerstone of the helping relationship. Empathy is essential in the development of relationship. When frequently exposed to the stress and traumas experienced by clients and confronted with their vulnerabilities and frailties, empathy can be overtaxed. Compassion fatigue is the result.

9. Compassion Fatigue

10. How does it develop? • Feeling powerless to help • Bear witness to the trauma • Unrealistic expectations • Feel caring for others more important than caring for ourselves • Difficult to change large systems/society • Poor working conditions

11. Symptoms in several arenas --Olfers, 201

12. Other signs: • Tendency to do more and accomplish less • Struggle to maintain control over the uncontrollable • Lose a sense of the bigger picture—miss the forest for the trees And/Or • Not celebrating small gains because needs still overwhelm

13. If you deal with those who are undergoing great suffering, if you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself. The point is to have a long-term perspective. --Dalai Lama

14. Importance of Self-Care • Compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard for helping professionals • EVERY effective helping professional has experienced it • If not tended to, relationships with clients suffer; personal life and health will suffer as well • Caring for yourself is a good model for clients and is encouraging to colleagues

15. Ideas: Physical • eat well • drink lots of water • sleep well • hug • exercise • yoga • sing • have sex • spend time outside • look at something beautiful • pamper yourself

16. Ideas: Emotional • cry • laugh • scream • throw ice • punch a pillow

17. Ideas: Psychological • say no • say yes • self-reflect • journal • solitude • pleasure reading • find joy • declutter • keep extraneous violence/trauma out of your life • outside interests • get a pet • get counseling

18. Ideas: Spiritual • pray • meditate • forgive yourself and others • read • talk to others

19. Ideas: In the workplace • set limits • peer support • supervisory support • ask for help • take days off • time management • metaphorical leave-taking • boundaries (leave work at work) • debrief • professional development

20. ABCs of fighting CF • Awareness (of one’s own needs, limits, emotions, and resources) • Balance (of work and play, care for self and others) • Connection (to oneself, others, and something larger) --Pierson

21. Dig where the ground is soft. Chinese Proverb