Compassion Fatigue and Burnout

Self-Care to Counter Compassion Fatigue and Burnout

Explore ways you can incorporate the following skills into your life to help prevent or reduce compassion fatigue and burnout. Print out this list and post it where you can see it regularly to remind you to take care of yourself.

• Set good boundaries.  Look at you current Work/Life balance and make changes as needed. Establish working hours and personal time hours. Limit or better yet, eliminate off hours work or phone calls. Set phone hours. Coordinate off-hours coverage. Schedule time off on a regular basis.
• Use breathing techniques often throughout the day as a quick, effective way to manage stress and anxiety. Use a relaxation breath – breathe in through your nose to the count of 4 while allowing your belly to expand. Then breathe out through your mouth to the count of 8 and feel your belly contract. This calms as it activates the parasympathetic system.
• Incorporate mindfulness skills throughout the day to help you stay anchored in the present moment and reduce feeling overwhelmed. Try techniques such as mindfulness of surroundings to help you get out of your head and feel grounded, awareness of breath to calm intense feelings, (Burdick, 2013) meditation to improve self-awareness and calm your stress response and perhaps yoga. As you incorporate more mindfulness skill you will enhance awareness and build a sense of calm while meeting the challenges of helping clients.
• Make self-care a priority and regularly schedule time for activities that you enjoy and that rejuvenate you, such as being in nature, pursuing hobbies or getting a massage. Make a list of these activities and add them to your calendar.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise can help you clear your head, improve your mood, and energize you. Pick the form of exercise that you enjoy the most and add it to your calendar. Use Skill 4.8 Move to Heal to help you add exercise to your life.
• Make sure you get enough sleep. Pay attention to how many hours help you feel the best. Use good sleep hygiene practices to improve your ability to get to sleep and get up at the same time daily. See Skill 4.7 Sleep to Heal for guidance on prioritizing sleep.
• Connect with others for support.  Do not try to do this work alone! Reach out to your professional colleagues, join a relevant support group, participate in a supervision group, and attend personal therapy sessions.
• Decrease sources of stress. Step back and make a list of the stressors in your life. Then take action to reduce or eliminate those that you can. See Skill 3.2 De-Stress for ideas on lowering your stress load. Use Mindfulness skills to lower your stress response
• Take time for self-reflection.  Practice what you teach others. Spend time to go within and process your own feelings about your work and life. Journal about your day, take time to list things you are grateful for. Notice things you want to change. Become aware of what you need to nurture yourself.

Adapted from (Mosunic, 2024)