When Helping Starts to Hurt

What Compassion Fatigue Feels Like — and How You Can Heal

What Is Compassion Fatigue?

Do you feel stuck in your private practice? Do you feel overwhelmed?

Especially during 2020, I think many of us experienced burnout or compassion fatigue as we were navigating supporting our clients and navigating our own stressors. 

According to Stamm (2010), compassion fatigue has two parts, including secondary trauma and burnout. Burnout is concerning the overwhelm of work and life and secondary trauma comes from the stressors connected with the content that therapists hear often. I go into a bit more about these definitions in my Diversify Income Workshop. 

In my dissertation, I studied the unique stressors and coping strategies of counselors in private practice (Willey, 2023).

Can Therapists in Private Practice Experience Compassion Fatigue?

I believe therapists in private practice also experience compassion fatigue. I experienced it and so did my participants.

Above you see the Group Experiential Themes (GET's) and subthemes from my Interpretative Phenomenological Study. 

The first theme was I'm Overwhelmed on Every Side. Participants described multiple stressors such as stressors in their lives, stress from business, feeling exhausted and worrying about making mistakes (Willey, 2023). 

The second theme was I Don't Know What to Do. Participants reported they saw that something was wrong, recognized their fear but were worried as they had been hurt in the past if they asked for help. 

We recognized that there is stigma in asking for help and I get it. I have been there, but we still need to ask for help whether it is from consultation/coaching or therapy for ourselves. This leads to the final theme that participants did recognize I Can Heal in acknowledging self-compassionate words that It's Okay to Not Be Okay. They also spent time in self-reflection and self-care, and also experienced compassion satisfaction and grew from their experiences (Willey, 2023). 

References
Stamm, B. H. (2010). The concise ProQOL manual (2nd ed.). ProQOL.org  https://proqol.org/proqol-manual 
Willey, B. M. (2023). Understanding the Experiences of Compassion Fatigue  Among Counselors in Private Practice: A Phenomenological Approach. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects.  4446. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4446

How Can I Heal?

That’s going to be unique to you.

My role is to walk with you as we explore what healing looks like on your terms. I’ll draw from both personal experience and the strategies I identified in my doctoral research on compassion fatigue — including insights from 7 therapist participants who shaped what I now call the Therapist Archetypes (8, if you count mine).

Together, we’ll focus on your unique path forward, which may include:

  • Boundary assessment and strategies

  • Self Compassion assessment and strategies

  • Self stigma assessment and strategies

  • Possible EMDR for secondary trauma

  • Business boundary assessment and strategies