Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

March 10, 2016 By Admin

Compassion Fatigue: Risks and Solutions

Risks and Solutions for Compassion Fatigue

Perhaps nothing more than compassion fatigue causes more helpers to prematurely exit their fields.  First responders are generally seen thas the most at risk for compassion fatigue (and possibly PTSD), followed by emergency room medical staff. A third group, medical and clinical staff working with high risk terminally-prone patients is also highly impacted. The risk increases as the age and observed suffering of the clinical population decreases.

Clinicians (psychologists, clinical social workers, addictions counselor, mental health counselors, and art therapists) are negatively impacted by both the serious suffering they “witness” in their psychotherapy sessions, suicide and homicide risks,  increasing liability problems, AND by relatively poor funding for the needed services they provide.  As a norm behavioral health funding lags far behind medical funding in person-hours of services delivered. This ever-present dearth of adequate financial supports translates into Compassion_fatigue_112793704these helpers spending more time doing the ever-growing bureaucratic demands of health care. I have always been amazed at what I call “organic bureaucracy”  in health care services.  Apparently, there is enough new money for more administrators, clerks and software reporting/tracking/auditing programs, but not enough to make the jobs of clinicians more efficient and practical.  The more time clinicians are required by funders and regulators to work on paper and EMRs, the less time they have to help their clients CHANGE. When clients change they tend to use less health care services, thus saving money. For example, many studies have documented that effective substance abuse treatment services save more money for states/governments than they cost to deliver – and yes these studies have been replicated. One would think that with the epidemic of mass-killings by gunfire in the United States and the out-of-control addictions here (5% of the world’s population using 60-70% of the world’s opioids), that funding sources would increase resources in this important psychological-health area – but it is not happening. Lots of big talk, but very little big action.

What is Compassion Fatigue?

Let’s take a look at what companion fatigue is and some of the known causes. Along with vicarious and secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue eats up the emotional and physical energies required to do this difficult psychological work.  Work dread and tired irritability slowly replace the inner joy that once came with the work.  Sadness, powerlessness, anxiety and depression may eventually occur in the exhausted helper. Where once their was high reinforcement and sympathetic joy to do the job, now there is more stress_balldisappointment and resentment.  As the worker enters compassion fatigue, his/her error rate increases; as one’s error rate increases there is more job stress, job insecurity and client risk/liability. Clinical supervisors, who once helped to shield their supervisees from the administrative and emotional “trauma” of doing this relatively-lower paid job, are now also caught up in the BIG machine of utilization and documentation requirements. Some less than effective supervisors actually become the primary source of clinician stress on the job. It all becomes one ball of pain and suffering with its own feedback loops.

What are Some of the Causes of Compassion Fatigue?

I will simply list some well-known causes here:

  1. Personal inability to leave the emotions of the job at work;
  2. Over-exposure to clients’ traumatic experiences, especially if the helper has unresolved trauma;
  3. Short-staffing patterns due to funding realities;
  4. Longer hours at the job, especially in non-clinical work duties;
  5. Lack of human validation experiences and personal power at work;
  6. Weak personal boundaries with clients, which cause client experiences to be internalized more;
  7. Emotional triggering of one’s own suffering in life (people, places, things, senses, object relations, etc.);
  8. Taking on more work – not taking breaks, not eating lunch in a healthy way, adding shifts, etc.;
  9. Weak self-care practices, and an inability to apply them mindfully;
  10. Mindlessness in the pressure and rush of it all;
  11. Excessive guilt for not being able to reduce a client’s suffering as much as you had wished to;
  12. Repeating automatic negative thoughts and feelings related to work roles and duties;
  13. Over-identification with client stories and emotions, perhaps stimulating your own attachment reality;
  14. Dehumanization of clients or black humor about clients – a sure sign of coming or present burnout;
  15. Experiencing more psycho-physical symptoms of stress reactivity, thus causing more stress;
  16. Self-medication behaviors as an effort to reduce your own emotional suffering; etc. etc.

What Can be Done to Reduce Compassion Fatigue?

I will simply lost some well-known supports and possible solutions here:

  1. Always apply more self-compassion (if you do not know how to, get help to learn how to);
  2. Practice boundary-making rituals when you leave your work location;
  3. Become more active advocating for improved behavioral health funding (state and national);
  4. Learn self-validating skills, and actively validate and emotionally-support co-workers;
  5. Perhaps practice anonymous random acts of kindness at work;
  6. Try not to overload yourself with high-trauma clients, and get help for yourself if necessary;
  7. Practice “enough is enough” by not taking on additional voluntary work;
  8. Get very serious about implementing self-care practices – and be mindful about it, schedule it;
  9. Learn and practice mindfulness skills (breathing, stretching, meditation, yoga, mindful walking)
  10. Do more regular, daily exercise;
  11. Use disputation skills from cognitive therapy for auto-pilot negative thinking;
  12. Be aware of devaluation of clients, and catch yourself mindfully BEFORE you engage in it;
  13. Try to notice something positive in every client you work with – include co-workers;
  14. Spend more time in nature;
  15. Share your feelings with a trusted colleague or friend;
  16. Transform your experience into personal writing, journaling, poetry, art, etc.
  17. Practice mindfulness-based stress reductions skills often (meditation, yoga, etc.);
  18. Obtain professional help with your stress reactivity and, especially, with self-medication behaviors; and,
  19. Begin to value yourself more – like and love yourself as much as possible.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

CLICK HERE  or any image below to Order 

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

MindfulHappiness_Amazon           mindful-happiness_barnes_and_noble

 

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Compassion, Compassion Fatigue, Featured Tagged With: COMPASSION FATIGUE, DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

What Consciousness Really Is Considering that we have been to the moon and back, and more recently surveyed important moons of Saturn, science is still a very long way from understanding how the human brain works – and even further away from having a clear, agreed-upon interpretation of human consciousness.  Consciousness is the “stuff” of […]

Mindfulness On Loss, Grief and Mourning Mindfulness about personal loss, grief, and mourning may encompass many things.  Here I will focus on the process and what people can do to better handle their suffering and pain.  One way to look at it is through the lens of radical acceptance; another is via the reality of […]

Mindful Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Earth Protectors The Standing Rock Sioux earth protectors are fighting earth destruction, environmental degradation, oil profiteering, and corporate greed.  Yes, I suppose finding huge reserves of crude helps many people become employed in the Dakotas. This is important. But other earth-wise activity (more solar for example) would be far […]

 A Practice To  Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition.  Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation.  As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there.  Sanskrit root […]

Meditations and Mantra: Try Them Out in Your Practice There are many forms of meditation.  In most cases, the common meditation forms fall into one of two categories: Mindfulness and Insight.  There are also demanding concentration meditations, chakra meditations, and mantra meditations. Here we’ll deal only with the two forms noted above and the use […]

A Radical Feminist in her Time Over 800 years ago Hildegard of Bingen presented radical viewpoints on women-power and male-dominance in the Christian Church, stone/gem healing, meditation, insight and intellect, the web of life or planetary oneness, being in nature, environmentalism, and personal stories of suffering, etc.  Despite her outspoken manner and her popularity among […]

-Steps to Mind Training Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC To pacify your mind you need to train your mind. Mind training leads to liberation from brain-mind-heart-body automatic processes and reactions. A well-trained mind allows you to utilize executive functions (attention and concentration) to alter auto-reactions of the brain, body and heart. A trained mind liberates […]

An Advanced View on Meditations on Emptiness An earlier post on the Dalai Lama’s book, Meditations on the Nature of Mind, ended with suggested meditations (my own personal contemplation’s) about emptiness.  I will first review those contemplations.  Contemplate deeply on what emptiness means personally to you.  Contemplate about a time when you received a glimpse of personal emptiness. […]

Vipassana Meditation and Introduction Vipassana meditation, as taught by S. N. Goenka, has been practiced in India, Europe, the United States and in many other parts of the world. There are various claims for effectiveness when used as a form of meditative treatment with various populations (often correctional and substance using populations); however, there is […]

Yoga Nidra and Your Inner Peace Yoga Nidra will allow you to relax like you may never have relaxed before.  Follow these modified instructions for your best relaxed state.  If at any time during Yoga Nidra you feel uncomfortable, simply stop and breathe in a manner that restores equilibrium.  Although this uncomfortable outcome is highly […]

Consciousness, Emptiness, and Well Being This is an advanced post on the complex relationship among consciousness (awareness), emptiness, and well being. Readers with advanced understanding of Buddhist Psychology will recognize the inherent relationships among consciousness, emptiness, and well being and interactions with core Buddhist concepts and experiences such as happiness and suffering, impermanence, non-dual nature, […]

  How Most People Learn in Psychotherapy It is highly important that clients learn from their therapists.  In most cases this includes alternative ways of thinking, emoting, and behaving. So what can we learn from educational research on how people learn? Of course we all know it begins with a solid therapeutic alliance – the […]

Happiness Path  – The 14th Dalai Lama His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama has suggested, among many other important things, that humans may experience true inner happiness by regular practice on the path to enlightenment. In his 2012 book, From Here to Enlightenment, he noted that personal happiness may be attained via specific behaviors and ways of […]

Mindfulness, Movement, and Meditation Practices Meditation Master Thich Nhat Hanh offers some of the most helpful mindfulness, movement, and meditation instructions available today.  His themes here are about reducing your suffering, increasing your satisfactions, and expanding your happiness as a result. Please do not note that “I do not have time to do these things!” […]

Are You Happier Yet? Use Practical Mindfulness Skills   Two recent books offer sound advice about YOU becoming a happier person. L. Cypers Kamen (2017) Are You Happy Yet: Eight Keys to Unlocking a Joyful Life. New York: MFJ Books and D. Altman (2016) Cleansing Emotional Clutter… New York: MFJ Books offer practical ways to improve your personal level of happiness. […]

Insights – Vipassana Mediation There will be future, more advanced vipassana meditations posted on the site. For now, however, we will end this series with a final post about the insights often experienced via vipassana meditation. We learn via experience about impermanence, suffering and its causes, no-self, emptiness and many other things – or, perhaps, […]

Henry David Thoreau  & Walking Meditation Henry David Thoreau is, perhaps, the most individualistic of the American Transcendentalists. He asked us to consider what we have learned that is useful as we travel our own “stream of life.” He cautions us not to regret when we die that we “had not lived.” He advised us to […]

Practice:  Mindful Actions to Improve YOUR Self-Esteem Improving Your Awareness with Practice Remain mindfully aware of the content and meta-cognition regarding the “speaking” of your inner, self-conscious critic.  Note what trends appear in the conversation. Remain mindfully aware of the reactions your mind and body experience regarding the activity of your inner self-critic in dealing […]

Building Emotional Resilience On a personal note, right now I am suffering.  Its April 15th and I have a terrible viral infection (sore throat, chest congestion, and fever).  I feel weak and miserable.  Perhaps all that frigid air we endured in New England this Winter also kept infectious “stuff” under control for a while. However, […]

Beyond MBSR – Quick Start Skills Self-calming for counselors and other helpers is one of the most important survival practices to master.  Self-calming consists a set of basic mindfulness skills, all of which must be practiced regularly to achieve desired emotion-regulation effects. The utility of these skills is well established in clinical research, and not […]

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness