Vitality as a Moderator of Clinician History of Trauma and Compassion Fatigue

Abstract

Vitality is an understudied protective mechanism within the psychotherapy literature. This study explored the impact of vitality on the relationship between a counselor's past traumatic experiences on their compassion fatigue. The sample consisted of 113 licensed counselors from a variety of disciplines (e.g., social workers, professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists) and represented an international sample. Findings showed that vitality is significant as a protective mechanism for the development of compassion fatigue for counselors with a history of trauma. The ego depletion hypothesis is provided as a context to describe this relationship and the role vitality plays. Implications for the practicing clinician are provided within this context.

The Impostor Phenomenon in Mental Health Professionals: Relationships Among Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction

“…Factors that may serve as buffers to developing compassion fatigue include vitality, defined as a subjective experience of self as autonomous, competent and engaged, for therapists with a personal trauma history (Martin-Cuellar et al, 2019). In addition, higher levels of social support, emotional intelligence, emotion management, and adaptive coping strategies were negatively correlated with compassion fatigue among health care professionals (Zeidner et al, 2013).…”

“…In contrast, the debilitating impact of compassion fatigue on mental health professionals has been well documented (Adams et al, 2006;Can & Watson, 2019;Martin-Cuellar, 2019;O'Brien & Haaga, 2015;Wagaman et al, 2015). Defined as a form of caregiver burnout developed by those who work with traumatized individuals (Figley, 2002), the construct of compassion fatigue incorporates two components.…”

Review of Protective and Predisposing Factors in the Vicarious Traumatization of Psychotherapists

“…La muestra total de los 22 estudios analizados incluyó, 4064 psicoterapeutas del área de la psicología clínica y de la salud, con tamaños de muestra que variaron desde un mínimo de 6 (Sui y Padmanabhanunni, 2016) hasta un máximo de 931 participantes (Wozencroft et al, 2019). La edad media de la población, obtenida a partir de las medias muestrales especificadas en 12 de los estudios analizados, fue de 41.39 años (Aafjes-van Doorn et al, 2022;Barrington y Shakespeare, 2014;Cieslak et al, 2013;Cummings et al, 2021;Diehm et al, 2019;Foreman, 2018;Halevi e Idisis, 2018;Lakioti et al, 2020;Litam et al, 2021;Makadia et al, 2017;Martin-Cuellar et al, 2019;Padmanabhanunni y Gqomfa, 2022). El rango de edad osciló entre los 20 y los 79 años, ambas edades fueron recogidas en el estudio de Wozencroft et al (2019).…”

Integrative Wellness Approaches to Mitigate Perceived Stress, Increase Vitality, and Build Community during COVID-19: A Pilot Study

“…The vital practitioner is defined as a caregiving professional who engages in systematic self-care activities designed to increase subjective vitality (e.g., time management, forest bathing) thereby mitigating perceived stress by increasing subjective vitality. Perceived stress and subjective vitality are important to address as they contribute to occupational longevity, job performance, psychosocial conditions, and physical manifestations that impact nurse connection with patients [ 1 , 2 ]. Thus far, the I4VP has utilized online workshops, art therapy, narrative writing, discussions, and professional quality of life to accomplish its mission.…”

“…Perceived stress, which is defined as a person’s reaction to an environment that is perceived as a threat to their abilities and/or health [ 9 ], has the greatest influence on the burnout of nurses compared to any other factor [ 10 , 11 ]. Subjective vitality is an influential factor to combat compassion fatigue and perceived stress [ 2 ]. Perceived stress, which is the primary proxy for the impacts on burnout as described above, was the focus of this feasibility study for the vital practitioner and were highlighted in importance during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”