PTSD, Stress, Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue: 14 Steps that Help
by Steve B. Reed, LPC, LMSW, LMFT
Secondary Trauma — Compassion Fatigue
The Third Annual Compassion Fatigue Symposium 2014: Your Path to a Balanced Life is being held on Friday March 21st, 2014. The location is 515 Custer Rd., Richardson, Texas 75080. My presentation will focus on the adverse impact of stress on our ability to function. It will also offer 14 steps to increase resilience and coping capacity.
Secondary trauma and compassion fatigue are serious problems facing people in the helping professions. Without the ability to mediate the rising build up of stress, many professionals including physicians, psychotherapists, clergy, social workers and those who work in nursing facilities can ultimately risk burnout.
This SlideShare presentation illustrates some of the key points of the lecture. It focuses on helping the participant understand the concept of coping capacity and how a combination of routine stress and traumatic stress can build up to push a person over the limit of their endurance. This can result in a cumulative stress overload effect that can contribute to secondary trauma and lead to compassion fatigue then ultimately burnout.
Six healthy habits and three ways to manage your mind are highlighted. Finally, I share my preferences regarding ways to eliminate traumatic stress that has already built up. This slide deck has links to many other resources including videos, articles and research. Some of the links offer easy to follow videos that will teach you how to utilize stress-relieving breathing, Quick REMAP’s mindfulness tool — the KAVE technique, and the first four acupoints from Quick REMAP.
