Proven and Effective Intervention Strategies for Toxic Stress, Burnout and Compassion Fatigue

Welcome, I am glad that you have decided to participate in this training. I was introduced to compassion fatigue in 1997 when I started my doctoral program at Florida State University. I studied with Dr. Charles Figley wrote the book Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized in 1995. In my first year at FSU, with the help of Anna Baranowsky and Kathleen Dunning, we developed the first ever treatment for compassion fatigue that we called the Accelerated Recovery Program for Compassion Fatigue. Through the ARP, we have successfully treated hundreds of professional caregivers who suffered from the symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout, helping them to regain joy and purpose in their work. The ARP remains today as the only manualized, systematic treatment for compassion fatigue that has demonstrated empirical effectiveness.

Through treating hundreds and training tens of thousands of caregiving professionals in the area of compassion fatigue, I have stumbled upon some things that work. Mostly what I have found is that there are no shortcuts. Just like a surgeon or a professional athlete, caregiving professionals must mature into excellence and resiliency. However, just because we survive a couple of decades in the field does not mean that we are effective, resilient, and joyful. It seems, more often, that the opposite is true—many of those folks with all the experience seem to become crusty and cynical.

In 2020, I and Jim Dietz, MD published the acclaimed Forward-Facing® Professional Resilience:  Prevention and Resolution of Burnout, Toxic Stress and Compassion Fatigue.  This book follows the course of the workshop and is built upon the evidence of effectiveness of this workshop lessening work-related stress symptoms detailed in 11 separate empirical peer-reviewed articles.  It also describes our experience of providing this workshop to medical professionals for the past ten years and witnessing the transformations in their lives.

Contained in this presentation you will learn the skills for preventing compassion fatigue and developing professional resilience. This information is underscored with an invitation to caregivers to begin the process of intentional maturation in their professional and personal lives. This training will provide an introduction and illuminate the pathway of how you can rediscover joy, purpose, meaning, and excitement in your professional mission. You will see the possibilities of how you can do this difficult and sometimes painful work stress-free as you become evermore effective and potent as an agent of caring and change.