Empathy Fatigue: Healing the Mind, Body, and Spirit of Professional Counselors

Abstract

Empathy fatigue results from a state of emotional, mental, physical, and occupational exhaustion that occurs as the counselor's own wounds are continually revisited by the client's life stories of chronic illness, disability, trauma, grief, and loss. Fundamental to the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of professional counselors are the self-care strategies that promote resiliency for the prevention of empathy fatigue. This type of “fatigue reaction” and its consequences has been recognized as “counselor impairment” by the American Counseling Association's (ACA) Task Force on Counselor Wellness and Impairment. This article: (a) provides an analysis of empathy fatigue from a mind, body, and spiritual perspective, and (b) delineates variables that should be helpful in the prevention and self-care strategies for professional counselors.

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