Precious few of us have been adequately prepared by our teachers and mentors to cope with the emotional turmoil of this work. The personal changes we experience directly resulting from this work can be debilitating, can be mild, can be short term or long term. What they all have in common is that they shift our understanding of this world and of ourselves in this world. A study Kyle Killian did in 2008 found we most commonly detect with these shifts through bodily stress, mood changes, sleep problems, and reduced concentration. He also found locus of control, social supports and work hours accounted for 41% of variance in compassion satisfaction rates.
He found that reaching out to other mental health professionals, other clinicians who share a similar burden to ourselves is key to maintaining our own wellbeing. Many researchers have this and social supports to be the two primary factors influencing how well we come through difficult patches in our careers and lives in general as clinicians.
Interestingly a personal life history of traumatic experiences do not necessarily mean greater vulnerability to being affected by the trauma we witness and attend to. In fact, some studies have shown that a history of personal tragedy is present in 60% of all helping professionals across the disciplines. What is certain however, is that unhealed emotional suffering can compromise us, no matter who we are, or what work we do.
We also know that those of us who’ve known great personal suffering can provide compassionate care with professionally appropriate distance simultaneously. And that is key to a satisfying career working with people in trauma and distress.
When we’re not prepared for this level of emotional intensity the work can get overwhelming very quickly. To better support our colleagues, and ourselves, we need to accept them for who they are in the moment, support them to become more effective – even when they’re already really effective – and to enable some love for their human bits. Simple, effective, enabling and a professional imperative we all appreciate.
