If you’re reading this newsletter there’s a good chance you’re someone with a big heart. You care about others, sometimes to the detriment of yourself. Your compassionate ways might be life-giving for those around you, but somehow in all that giving you find yourself depleted.
As a 44 year-old ex-teacher I am trying (though often failing) to interrupt this behavioural pattern. And since Good Enough is all about teaching and learning I feel like I should share some newfound knowledge that I’ve recently gained around a condition that big hearted people can very easily succumb to — compassion fatigue.
It’s very rarely a straight road that I travel towards some new understanding of myself or the world. I meander. I go on tangents. But I do get there, often with the help of others, especially my students. And in a Coaching and Mentoring course I’ve been teaching for the last month I’ve had my eyes opened to the dangers of compassion fatigue. My class is made up of a few K-12 teachers (which, for a Master of Education program is to be expected) and a whole cohort of nurse educators from across the country (unexpected!). I recently gave a talk on the intersection of health research and education* so I had a little knowledge to pull from, BUT this specific teaching experience has ended up being a real education for me. Nurses know a lot about compassion fatigue. So, eager student that I am, I’ve taken notes.
Some context: Psychologist Charles Figley described compassion fatigue in 1995, observing that therapists experienced symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder after working with traumatized clients. According to University of Calgary researcher Astrid H. Kendrick:
His work led to a new understanding of the heavy emotional, mental and physical cost to professionals who cared for vulnerable, hurting or grieving people.
While the symptoms of compassion fatigue are generally associated with caregivers such as healthcare professionals and counselors, they can occur within “anyone who experiences direct or secondary exposure to traumatic events.” Translation: All the big-hearted people. Since 2020 compassion fatigue has been more widely recognized as a problem for educators, which is a reality that shows up in my book Finding Joy. So, focused on teacher care, I listened to the group of expert caregivers in my class and then did some reading. There is hope!
The research says that healing from this fatigue can begin by:
understanding the impact of “school culture”
This point brings me back to a lot of the place-based memory work I’ve been talking about on the Reframeables podcast of late. It means taking stock of where you are and who you’re surrounded by — and acknowledging gaps that need to be filled for your own well-being.
building wider community support for the work of educators
To fill those well-being gaps teachers need to talk to nurses and nurses need to spend time with social workers. Basically, we need to expand our circles of care! More connections mean more opportunities for varied perspectives that help us to grow both inside and out.
using personal self-care strategies and accessing professional supports and resources.
This is where technology can enter our circle of care as a new “friend” of sorts. Recommended meditation apps like Headspace take the work out of learning how to decompress and meditate. (Not an ad! Just advice given and shared by a few bright students).
If there are caregivers in your life who need to be reminded to show compassion to themselves in the midst of their important work, maybe what I learned from some generous nurse educators will prove useful to them. Please share with them this mini-lesson. Let’s be Good Enough together.
(**The talk I gave was in relation to a cool concept called “narrative humility”...if you’re interested in learning more about it let me know in the comments and I’ll share about it in a future Good Enough)
Conquering Compassion Fatigue
A great read! Conquering compassion fatigue requires not just the ability to self-recognize; it necessitates a need to create and implement tools that will mitigate and/or restore the compassion tank! In today's fast-paced... "now,now,now" world, many people lose sight of the fact that self-care is essential for a healthy mental, emotional and physical existence. Thanks, K.