Compassion Fatigue Solutions

This exercise was inspired by Saakvitne and Pearlman's book Transforming the Pain

Make sure you have some undisturbed time to work through the five following questions:

1) Where do the stories go?

What do you do at the end of a work day to put difficult client stories away before you go home?

2) Were you trained for this?

Did your training offer you any education on self-care, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma or burnout? If it did, how up to date are you on those strategies? If it didn’t, how much do you know about these concepts?

3) What are your particular vulnerabilities?

There are two things we know for sure about the field of helping: one, that a large percentage of helpers have experienced primary trauma at some point in their past, which may have led them to being attracted to the field in the first place; two, that personality types who are attracted to the field of helping are more likely to be highly attuned and to feel empathy towards others which makes them good at their job and also more vulnerable to developing CF, VT and Burnout.

What are your vulnerabilities?

4) How do you protect yourself while doing this very challenging work?


5) On a blank sheet of paper, write out the story of your career as a helper

What have been the biggest challenges in your current job? Think broadly – client challenges, organizational challenges, interpersonal, societal, other? Thinking more specifically about your current job - what have been or are the biggest challenges – your work schedule, colleagues, office layout etc.

How did you come to realize that your work was having a significant impact on you and on your life?

Once you have written your story, take some time to review what you have written, and look for themes and patterns. What aspects of your CF/VT have to do with the nature of your work? What aspects have to do with your own history/family of origin? Can you see how the nature of your place of work may have impacted on your levels of CF and VT? Can you see how your own history/family of origin may have contributed to your levels of CF and VT?

If you feel comfortable doing so, consider discussing this with a colleague, friend or counsellor.


(This is an excerpt from The Compassion Fatigue Workbook © Françoise Mathieu 2009)

Today, I am excited.

I'm giddy like a little kid who is about to go away on holidays to Florida (which I am), excited like someone who has just started working on a new very cool project and who would happily spend hours on it each day (more news on this in a couple of weeks). I'm stoked, pumped, jazzed. You get the idea.

This new project is going to take a fair bit of time in the next little while and may eat into my blog writing time, so I thought I would share with you some excerpts from the Compassion Fatigue Workbook until I come back with more information about this new venture. Stay tuned!

Photo by Jon Whiles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This list of self care ideas was compiled by participants at last week's one day Compassion Fatigue workshop which was held in Ottawa on March 26th, 2010. Take a look! Could you commit to one of these in the week to come? A springtime resolution perhaps?

Self Care Strategies at Home
-listen to the birds for 5 minutes
-dance uninhibited to one song
-play in the dirt
-play with your children and/or grandchildren
-colour mandalas or colouring book
-play wii - nintendo fitness
-chanting
-karaoke
-manicure/pedi/facial at home uninterrupted
-treat yourself once a week
-enjoy the sun
-express positivity once a day to those you love
-have a fun day
-start work late one day a week and pamper yourself (music, bath, long shower)
-read how much and however you want when you arrive home
-learn to yodel (or another new fun skill that makes you laugh)
-borrow a neighbour's pet
-discover a new musician or poet
-put on different music and dance with your children
-share what you are grateful for every night
-have "me time" once a week
-have flowers once a week
-have sex with yourself or with a partner once a week
-belly dance
-all day in bed - music, books, meals
-go to a park and play on the swings
-have a family pedi/manicure
-have a nerf ball fight in the home with the whole family
-put on some music and dance
-have all you need for the next day ready and waiting in the morning
-movie night
-try a new recipe to cook for yourself
-try to delegate without nit-picking
-take time to enjoy walking your dog
-take time to release - crank up the stereo, dance and go wild
-take up a new hobby
-plan to be organised i.e. meals

Self Care Strategies at Work
-leave your office and enjoy your lunch break
-screen your calls and prioritize them
-leave your briefcase "on a tree"
-plan and organize
-learn to say no
-carpool
-go for a walk
-have movie time for release, maybe at a staff meeting
-hold a staff fun day e.g: drumming day
-never miss lunch/don't eat it at your desk/don't work during lunch
-have a pot luck lunch with your team
-stretch every day
-pack a cooler with healthy foods, drinks, snacks
-meditate with a bell/chime to remind you of time
-put a stretch reminder on your work computer
-music for work during down time/breaks
-wear slippers all day at work/at your desk
-once a day email a funny video to colleagues
-introduce yourself to someone new once a week
-lunch time yoga or after work
-watch a movie at lunch
-community soup lunch with recipe to share
-bring pet or baby in for a visit
-share what you are grateful for at staff meeting
-read a non-related book at work
-deal with confrontations one-on-one
-look at alternative ways to debrief (drawing, dance, etc)
-discuss with other organizations "best practice"
-social field trips (i.e. white water rafting, friday bbq or potluck)
-dancing
-watch or listen to comedy (Ellen, Loreta Laroche, youtube)
-play cards
-have a memory box full of happy memories
-wave breathing
-journalling
-fill 5 pages with what pisses you off about your life. When you are done, put them in a sealed envelope and then shred it
-bring fresh flowers to your desk

My 9 year old son: "this morning, at my sleepover at Z's house, I woke up at 6am, but I knew I had to let him sleep in, so I lay there until 740am when he woke up".
Me: "wow, that's a long time to lie there. What did you do with all that time?"
My son: "Oh, it was totally fine, I just thought about lots of stuff"
Me: "Oh yeah? Like what - What you are going to do when you grow up? Things that worry you? (ever the shrink...)
My son: "Nah, I thought about all the great moves I could do next time I play on my wii hockey game. Time just flew by!"
Ah, gender differences...

Yesterday, I had a chance to enjoy several peaceful hours doing two of my favourite things: cooking meals for the week while listening to CBC radio's Eleanor Wachtel (this time, I took in an interview Zadie Smith, the author of White Teeth and a very bright and reflective person. Thoroughly enjoyable). Wachtel is a truly gifted interviewer and it is always a treat to listen to her show. These two activities are very restorative practices for me - going into another person's universe for a while (in this case, the authors she interviews), chopping vegetables for the meals of the week and most importantly, doing all of this alone and in silence. For me, a perfect restorative day would start with making bread, I would then go for a long run, come home and make soup and then while the soup is cooking and the bread is baking, lie on the couch and read the entire Saturday newspaper from cover to cover. Ah..., I feel relaxed just thinking about it.

You notice that in my scenario there are no kids, no partner, no friends calling on me. That does not mean that I don't love them and cherish my time with them, but there are times when I need to be completely alone to recharge my batteries.

The work that we do requires us to be 'on' all the time, for our clients, our colleagues and the families we work with. In fact, some of us are so used to being 'on' that we have difficulty switching off and may spend the evening avoiding silence and solitude because we have lost the art of slowing down. Some helpers are never alone because they are so overcommitted in their personal and professional lives that others have access to them 24/7. Some other helpers are so fried that they have no energy left to talk and socialise with others on weekends and evenings - ever - and this can end up feeling lonely and depressing.

In addition, a lot of helpers tell me that they feel very guilty about wanting to spend some time on their own and have no idea where to begin.

My example above (cooking, podcast etc.) may not be your idea of a good time, so I would like to invite you to think about your own restorative practices. What do you enjoy doing to recharge and reconnect with yourself? How do you carve out the time among all your family and work responsibilities?

Photo from: www.flickr.com/photos/mharvey75/374461385

During my travels last week, I met some lovely people and enjoyed several great chats over lunch and during breaks during the training sessions. One of these conversations was about green smoothies (as in smoothies made with greens) - yes, you heard me right. Let me explain what this is all about.

Several months ago, I came across an article on the health benefits of eating raw foods. I had heard about raw foodism in the past and was always rather sceptical about this approach to nutrition. In a nutshell, raw foodism advocates eating foods in their least processed and most natural forms. The argument is that cooking food destroys important enzymes and make foods less nutritious and less digestible. I have no idea about the science behind this, but I do know that eating mostly plant-based foods in their least processed forms can't be a bad thing and that most of us eat far too much salt, fat and preservatives.

I decided to try introducing more raw foods in my diet in October and within two weeks, I noticed significant changes in my overall health. After a lifetime of low blood sugar crashes, for once in my life I started feeling actually satiated between meals. I no longer got that shaky headachy feeling if I didn't get lunch right on time. I also noticed a whole host of other improvements to my overall health and energy. Eating more raw food is not about dieting or depriving yourself. Rather, it's a way of introducing more plant-based foods in your life.

Anyhow, if you want to know more about raw food, you can read all about it at the sites I mention below, all I really wanted to tell you about today was green smoothies.

I don't think that many people will argue with the concept that eating more greens is good for all of us. Raw Divas recommend a very painless way to do this: drink a green smoothie once a day. For starters, they suggest making this very simple green smoothie: (you need a blender for this): 2 ripe or frozen bananas, a handful of spinach, a cup of water and a few ice cubes if your bananas were not frozen. Start with a little bit of spinach and add more after you are used to the taste. Try having a green smoothie at breakfast, as a midafternoon snack or in the evening instead of your usual cookies and milk. Tera Warner of Raw Divas also has a very tasty banana ice cream recipe on her website. Here is a cute video of her and her son making the ice cream.

I have no affiliation with these raw food sites but thought I would list a few that I like to visit once in a while for inspiration:

The raw divas website mentioned above has lots of recipes on the site if you navigate around a bit.
www.rawmazing.com (she has the best recipes, I find)
www.kristensraw.com (she is hard core raw vegan but offers a lot of recipes on her blog)
Choosing raw has very nice lunch ideas and other recipes worth trying

Whether or not you decide to go the raw food way, try a green smoothie and let me know what you think.

Photo by Nillerdk @ wikicommons

A child in a state of full March break. Photo by FM

I am back after a week at home with kids. I laughed when, on Friday, lining up at the cash while trying to break up a bickering little fight between my two, the cashier said to me: "only a few more days, hang in there" referring to the fact that kids would soon be back in school. I do love them to bits but for a working mother, a week at home with kids is not always particularly restful or peaceful. For once, however, I wisely did not make unrealistic plans before the break (as in "I will read the following three novels this week, and clean up my basement, and nap daily, and ..."). No, this time, I was clear in my goals: "Other than going for a run daily, I will not have an agenda and we will do fun family-centered activities all week." And that is what we did, and although I am a little nap-deprived, I am happy with that. We had a lot of laughs and I learned that Ontario is the biggest peanut producing province in Canada, did you know that?

This week I start travelling again and I have many trips scheduled from now until June with nary a week without a visit to one part of Ontario or another. Time to haul out the photo of my daughter pouting again (if you've been to one of my talks recently, you know what I'm referring to). This week I'm in Hamilton and Ottawa, next week in London, Ont, then Ottawa again, Hamilton and Brampton. Going on the road is very rich with new learnings for me, and the workshop continues to grow and change as I make new connections and hear new stories. Those encounters hugely compensate for the downsides of being a road warrior, as my husband lovingly calls me. I look forward to meeting you if we have not yet met.

by Lindsay

After donating blood a friend of mine wrote in a google buzz, “Why are health professionals so rough??? I’m fragile people!”

Sadly, we often are rough. We spend so much time patching people up that pretty soon we’re like factory workers putting bolts on a widget. It’s a form of “compassion fatigue.” We’re faced with so much sadness and suffering that we slowly, subconsciously, learn to hold our patients at a distance. But somehow, some patients, some situations, find their ways deep into our hearts.

This weekend I was changing a dressing on a particularly nasty bed sore on a sweet young lady that is close to my age. The sore was so nasty, and the patient so young that I couldn’t help but my let my heart go out to hear and to feel pained for her situation. I did my best to let her see and feel my empathy and made sure to talk to the next shift about a few things that could be done to make her more comfortable.

To respond to my friend’s comment, we health professionals are also fragile people, but we’ve wrapped our hearts away so that we can do our jobs professionally and efficiently. But we’re grateful for comments like yours, and for patients like mine that remind us that we’re all fragile people.

End of guest post. Thank you Lindsay for letting me reprint this from your blog.