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The Compassion Fatigue Workbook: Creative Tools for Transforming Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Traumatization
The Compassion Fatigue Workbook is a lifeline for any helping professional facing the physical and emotional exhaustion that can shadow work in the helping professions. Since 2001 the activities in this Workbook have helped thousands of helpers in the fields of healthcare, community mental health, correctional services, education, and the military. In addition to a comprehensive description of compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization, The Compassion Fatigue Workbook leads the reader through experiential activities designed to target specific areas in their personal and professional lives. It provides concrete strategies to help the reader develop a personalized plan for identifying and transforming compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization.
Topics covered
understanding compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma symptom checklist targeting areas for strategic planning understanding warning signs assessing contributing factors evaluating self-care identifying triggers personal, professional and organizational strategies.
Topics covered
understanding compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma symptom checklist targeting areas for strategic planning understanding warning signs assessing contributing factors evaluating self-care identifying triggers personal, professional and organizational strategies.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 17, 2016
FINALLY! A book with something more to offer than eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep! I took pages and pages of notes and will have to buy a copy for myself and for my dispatch center.
March 2, 2020
What I really appreciate about this workbook is the accessibility of the material. The recommendations are easy-to-read and actionable. It's easy to identify the important points because they are put succinctly. Although I have read a lot of material on self-care, etc. I learnt many new things going through this workbook. I would recommend this to anyone in the helping field.
May 6, 2017
I bought this workbook a couple of years ago when I was really hurting. After 20 years of working in a helping profession, this workbook has become somewhat what of a bible for me. I still continue to review chapters from time to time. I am truly appreciative.
August 23, 2020
I heard the author speak at a conference last year and felt like she was speaking directly to my experiences as a social worker over the past 15 years. This is the best and most practical compassion fatigue and self-care resource I have encountered to date.
December 16, 2018
Chapters six and thirteen are of vital importance. One deals with Compassion Fatigue and the other with Self Care. All health care professionals need a copy.
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August 12, 2021This workbook is designed to support “helpers” in various fields, from healthcare to law enforcement, as they experience Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Traumatization as a result of their work. The book is fairly comprehensive in its approach, beginning by introducing readers to the developing research on this topic before describing common signs and symptoms of these conditions and concluding with a deep exploration of processes for dealing with them. In this way, the book not only offers support for helpers and caregivers who need to learn to help and care for themselves, but provides readers the tools to open a discourse about these issues in their place of work. While I felt the book seemed best suited to people such as social workers and nurses, it is accessible to a wider audience, and I felt that I learned a lot about the experience and situation of workers in what Mathieu refers to as the “helping field”.
At the beginning of the book, Mathieu spends a lot of time clarifying how we can differentiate compassion fatigue from other issues of workplace burnout and stress. The distinction is important for the sake of the developing field of research on the topic, but also goes to show how interrelated these issues can be. As a result, the book covers a great deal of ground, discussing both statistical data and a number of anecdotes about the experience of work in the helping field, and helped me to get a much better understanding of the concerns facing this broad community of helping professionals, particularly in the United States and Canada. Mathieu makes many quick but provocative points, such as an observation that only 15% of surveyed law enforcement officials were willing to seek counseling, remarks on the potentially desensitizing nature of working as a therapist and how this could lead to a dismissive or “ambulance chasing” approach to one’s work, and a note on recent studies revealing that diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder are often erroneously assigned to difficult clients by burnt out psychiatrists. This insider’s perspective on the challenges and missteps common to the helping field really helped to complicate my view – the failures that people in these positions are capable of can be so crippling to clients that there is often understandably a level of distrust between the public and those who have trained to be in them, but it’s important to remember how overtaxing these jobs can be. Mathieu ends up highly recommending that helpers work part-time if possible, especially during difficult periods in their home life, which I found very surprising and notable.
While my work with CTEP has yet to subject me to the types of interactions that could cause secondary trauma, I think that the recommendations Mathieu makes for self-awareness and self-care would be useful for any AmeriCorps member, and it’s important to note that even mental health professionals often have to be reminded and even taught how to care for themselves. A very common symptom of the “fatigue” described in this book is actually to push yourself even harder in your caregiving work, which is why it’s so important to maintain a caring approach and routine for yourself. I also think that this book or something similar should be required reading for those planning to enter the helping field for the life, which applies to many service members. There is a troubling lack of awareness around compassion fatigue in the helping field as it is today, though Mathieu notes that the situation is improving. This means that, unfortunately, we have to take the responsibility ourselves to create healthy workplaces where helpers receive the support they deserve.
At the beginning of the book, Mathieu spends a lot of time clarifying how we can differentiate compassion fatigue from other issues of workplace burnout and stress. The distinction is important for the sake of the developing field of research on the topic, but also goes to show how interrelated these issues can be. As a result, the book covers a great deal of ground, discussing both statistical data and a number of anecdotes about the experience of work in the helping field, and helped me to get a much better understanding of the concerns facing this broad community of helping professionals, particularly in the United States and Canada. Mathieu makes many quick but provocative points, such as an observation that only 15% of surveyed law enforcement officials were willing to seek counseling, remarks on the potentially desensitizing nature of working as a therapist and how this could lead to a dismissive or “ambulance chasing” approach to one’s work, and a note on recent studies revealing that diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder are often erroneously assigned to difficult clients by burnt out psychiatrists. This insider’s perspective on the challenges and missteps common to the helping field really helped to complicate my view – the failures that people in these positions are capable of can be so crippling to clients that there is often understandably a level of distrust between the public and those who have trained to be in them, but it’s important to remember how overtaxing these jobs can be. Mathieu ends up highly recommending that helpers work part-time if possible, especially during difficult periods in their home life, which I found very surprising and notable.
While my work with CTEP has yet to subject me to the types of interactions that could cause secondary trauma, I think that the recommendations Mathieu makes for self-awareness and self-care would be useful for any AmeriCorps member, and it’s important to note that even mental health professionals often have to be reminded and even taught how to care for themselves. A very common symptom of the “fatigue” described in this book is actually to push yourself even harder in your caregiving work, which is why it’s so important to maintain a caring approach and routine for yourself. I also think that this book or something similar should be required reading for those planning to enter the helping field for the life, which applies to many service members. There is a troubling lack of awareness around compassion fatigue in the helping field as it is today, though Mathieu notes that the situation is improving. This means that, unfortunately, we have to take the responsibility ourselves to create healthy workplaces where helpers receive the support they deserve.
August 25, 2020
A transformational and thoughtful workbook. Practical tools to help those with diminished compassion reserves to recognize signs, appreciate the context within society, and make small, incremental changes to regain their life's passion. Grateful for this work and the conversations it has sparked to sustain health and well-being.
January 17, 2017
Drawing on experts in the field of supporting the helping professions, this book provides a good overview of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma. The author, Francoise Mathieu, also includes a bit about burnout. Chapter 6: Warning Signs of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma offers great advice and signs to watch for and the author provides a good analogy of traffic lights - Green (all is good), Yellow (emerging warning signs) and Red (danger zone). Chapter 13 provides the reader with a good summary of Self-Care. This book is meant to be used as a tool to help those who are wanting to improve their "compassion satisfaction" and encourages those who are not happy to seek professional help. Easy read, with useful tools and exercises to spot compassion fatigue and how to combat it.
Angela G. Gentile, MSW, RSW
www.AngelaGGentile.com
Angela G. Gentile, MSW, RSW
www.AngelaGGentile.com
March 24, 2022
This workbook was provided at my job and it was so so helpful. It allowed us to not only see how we were dealing with compassionate fatigue but helped us navigate it
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews