If you are working in a helping profession, the emotional hazards of your work may be affecting your mental health and overall quality of life.
What types of interventions you will benefit most from depends on what specific areas you are struggling with. You may be experiencing secondary traumatic stress (STS) from hearing a traumatic story from a client. There may be factors that are blocking your ability to experience compassion satisfaction (CS) or the good feelings that come from working in a helping profession. Or you may be experiencing burnout which is a result of a buildup of negative factors from your work environment.
To give you a basic idea of where you land in each of those areas, you can self-administer the PRO-QOL which is designed to help you self-assess your level of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.
Click Here for a hard copy of the PRO-QOL with self-scoring instructions. Or, if you want to take the measure online, click here and the link will take you to their website.
Once you know your areas of strength and struggle, you can begin to form a plan designed to increase the joy and satisfaction you derive from working in your field AND you can learn ways to reduce the unnecessary parts of suffering you encounter in day-to-day aspects of your job.
No, I cannot save you from all pain associated with being a helping professional. To read more about my take on therapists and suffering, click here to read a blog article I wrote on this topic. However, you do not need to live with constant dread around working in your chosen profession.
If you think you would benefit from some one-on-one interventions, please do not hesitate to reach out. I know I have benefited greatly from the therapists I have worked with, and I offer a shame-free environment for you to figure out how to live a good life in and outside of your office.
Sarah Hunter, LCSW 