Key Elements of Conducting Research with Joel DeGirolamo, September 27, 2021
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In this session, Dr. Goldvarg explains Compassion Fatigue, presents symptoms, and discusses strategies to manage it.
Compassion Fatigue
By Dr. Damian Goldvarg
Providing mental health services or working on maximizing personal and professional potential can be very rewarding, but it can also be emotionally and physically demanding. Over time, burnout can develop due to the unremitting psychological stress of being exposed to emotionally draining situations and the inability to get appropriate rest.
I started working with HIV/AIDS patients and professionals at AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1992. I was curious about the most effective strategies for helping them with their ongoing emotional challenges. So, in 1997, I published a doctoral dissertation on “Burnout Prevention in Healthcare Providers.”
Burnout and spirituality were the themes of my literature review. I hypothesized that spirituality and mindfulness strategies could be beneficial to healthcare providers. I devised a survey to assess self-perceived spirituality and correlated it with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (“MBI”), which measures feelings of being emotionally overworked and exhausted by one’s job.
Unfortunately, I was unable to prove my hypothesis. Health care practitioners who considered themselves spiritual and engaged in spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, and rituals were still extremely burnt out at work. This did not stop me from giving seminars on burnout prevention worldwide and sharing some mindfulness and resilience practices.
COVID-19 presented me and several of my colleagues with a similar experience of being exhausted by our work and having difficulty staying focused. Paying attention to the language used by clients, coaches, and supervisors, I kept hearing people talk about compassion fatigue, which has a very similar meaning to what I discussed in my literature review on burnout.
The difference between the two concepts is that burnout is characterized by emotional fatigue and withdrawal due to excessive workload and institutional stress, whereas compassion fatigue is triggered by personal and professional experiences in all the groups we belong and affects all aspects of our lives.
What Is Compassion Fatigue?
Compassion fatigue, also known as “secondary traumatization,” is characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, leading to a diminished ability to empathize or feel compassion for others. It is frequently referred to as the “negative cost of caring.” This experience goes beyond work, the caring could be for family members or friends.
What are the Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue?
People who experience compassion fatigue may exhibit a variety of symptoms, including:
- Hyperarousal and sleep reactivity
- Reduced cognitive ability
- Impaired behavior and judgment
- Isolation and moral decline
- Loss of self-esteem and emotional control
- Anger and irritability
- Loss of hope
- Aches and pains
- Absenteeism in the workplace
How to Manage Compassion Fatigue?
Personal self-care: Take good care of your body, mind, and soul. Take a break from work, get enough sleep, eat well, practice breathing exercises and mindfulness, work out and participate in other recreational activities to manage your stress.
Social self-care: Find social and emotional support—in other words, talk to someone. Nurture your relationships and set clear professional boundaries.
Professional help: You can seek professional counseling to help overcome unpleasant thoughts and emotions and/or focus on healthy coping mechanisms through coaching and supervision.
Compassion fatigue can cause feelings of guilt for lack of empathy. Understanding how this happens to us and how we can control our thoughts and emotions in these trying times is essential to maintain healthy relationships and deliver the best services to our clients.
Resources:
Compassion Fatigue Self-test
https://nwdrugtaskforce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Compassion-Fatigue-Handout-6.pdf
Boundaries
Definitions and TED Talk
https://compassionfatigue.org/index.html
Health providers
In this session, Natalia de Estevan Ubeda presents her doctoral research on The Learning Journey of Highly Experienced Supervisors.
June 21, 2021
Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Coaching Supervision:
This segment of the Americas Coaching Supervision Network reviewed three fundamental intersectional concepts through the coaching and supervision experience. Principles of “diversity” in coaching have been embraced by ICF and EMCC. Globally, both organizations have recognized the importance of incorporating diversity-related best practices in everyday coaching work. The opportunity to address these principles becomes imperative when considering the value and multi-layered impact of coaching supervision. Throughout the interactive session, participants were asked to reflect on how increased awareness and understanding of DEI can enhance and up-level their coaching and supervision practices. The goal is to empower coaches to effectively meet the challenge of recognizing systemic inequality while also increasing their comfort level initiating dialogue about the same. A list of working EDI terminology will be made available to attendees
DeBorah “Sunni” Smith Bio:
For more than a decade, Sunni Smith has successfully trained and coached entities in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. Organizations that have benefitted from her training include IBM; the Center for Disease Control; FiLM iNDEPeNDANT and Genentech & Roche International. Her executive/leadership coaching practice is an organic outgrowth of professional backgrounds in public policy, media, and law. As a thought-partner, she is a value-added asset in the emerging, complex, and compelling work toward cultural competency in coaching.
Sunni is an ICF Professional Certified Coach, an adjunct with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), and a certified executive coach with Executive Coaching Connections (ECC). She also is certified in Conversational Intelligence®(C-IQ), Team Advantage Coaching®, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and Conflict Resolution. She received her foundational coach training from Goldvarg Consulting and recently completed a certification in Coaching Supervsion.
John Leary-Joyce explained these principles in relation to Hawkins’ Seven-Eyed Supervision Model, which aligns well with the Gestalt approach, to systematically address the different Supervision ‘modes’. An attached chapter from my book Fertile Void, Gestalt Coaching at Work outlines this model.
Our complimentary monthly meeting in March was part of the Pre-Conference.
Michelle Lucas and Paul Sanbar presented a pre-conference event on “The Coaching Super – Vision Mindset” as well as an exercise on “Misfits”. Sound intriguing?
This session is about the Poetics of Coaching with Sam Magill, MCC as part of the Americas Coaching Supervision Network.
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