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Counselor Wellness Assessment 500
Orientation to Counseling Professional Identity (Liberty
University)
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Burnout, Compassion Fatigue and a Plan for Restoration
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue and a Plan for
Restoration Cara Soto
Liberty University
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Table of Contents
Abstract................................................................................................................................3
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue And A Plan For Restoration................................................4
Personal Assessment............................................................................................................4
Wellness Strategies..............................................................................................................7
References..........................................................................................................................10
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Abstract
This is a journey towards holistic wellness. Holistic wellness just does not happen. It must be an
intentional journey to accomplish healthy living habits. This paper looks at the benefit of
recognizing imbalances in physical, financial, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual
journey. Not all of these will be at 100% all the time, this journey is fluid. But it is important to
recognize which of this are imbalanced. By taking a test and knowing the signs of imbalance is a
good place to start. This paper will explore my results from six sections of wholeness mentioned
above. In my personal assessment I explore the weaknesses and strengths. Then for wellness
strategies I lay out a plan to live a more balanced life. This Wellness plan is supposed to be in
place to prevent burnout, however in the paper you will discover that I am already coming from a
place of burn out in three of the six areas. Knowing the areas of strength is helpful to keeping
strong in those areas and knowing my weaknesses is helpful in achieving wellness.
Keywords: Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Personal Assessment
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Burnout, Compassion Fatigue and a Plan for Restoration
Wellness is a positive and active approach to mental and physical health. It is not disease
oriented, but strength based. Councilors believe that fostering a person’s strengths can help a
person cope, but also help them thrive. The text also goes on to say, that as we adopt this
perspective with clients, we begin to recognize that as counselors, we need our own wellness
because of the psychological stresses of the job (Granello and Young, 2019). Holistic health is
essential for counselors. A burned out counselor can harm themselves, emotionally, physically,
spiritually and mentally. This is why it is so important to safeguard against counselor burn out by
having a wellness plan in place.
Personal Assessment
The first way to solve a problem is by first recognizing it. After taking the Stress
Reaction Inventory (1967) I realized just how much stress I have been experiencing. My score
was 335! That does not even account for all the other things going on in life. Like being part of a
family that has a disabled brother-in-law. My mother-in-law diagnosed with onset Parkinson’s
disease who is the main caregiver of my handicapped brother-in-law. Not having a community
of friends has been super stressful for me. A few years ago, we moved from a place that my
husband, girls and I had lived at for over 12 years. Our girls grew up in that area and with a
church family we dearly love. I do not believe that I have fully grieved the losses I had when we
moved. This has contributed to my stress of not having my friends close by. And then this past
year, both of my girls left for college. This was exceedingly difficult for me because I have had
them close to me by homeschooling them almost all of their school years. I am super excited for
them and their new adventure; I would have it no other way because this is a natural process of
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growing up and separating from parents however, I believe I need to grieve the things that I am
going to miss about them.
I am married and have a wonderful husband who is always there to help me. However, he
has had health challenges related to stress and burnout from being a senior pastor for over 20
years and by not handling stress well. This summer we decided he needed to attend a lifestyle
change center. They educated him about managing stress and eating healthy. My husband is not
very disciplined, so this causes me stress seeing him not following the plan and suffering
because of it.
I started school this year which has been a dream of mine for almost 10 years. So even
though it is stressful, I really enjoy the learning through reading and the podcasts. This class has
really opened my eyes to feeling I have and signs of burnout that I never knew existed. I was
under the belief that if I loved doing something I could never get burned out. This of course was
a false belief. This master’s course has given me words to express what I am experiencing
within ministry at church.
Furthermore, to add an additional layer of stress, we have also had a woman who is about
60 years-old move in with us last year. We had a spare bedroom and needed someone to take
care of our house while on vacation. But this also added to my stress because I have to establish
boundaries with her. Some things I must overlook; for example, her not being able to see well
and leaving crumbs on the counters and floors. Her poor eyesight also results in her inability to
wash the dishes thoroughly and we often have to rewash everything. In addition, I have really
disliked it when she has walked into my husband’s office without knocking or asking. Another
time it was her coming into my bedroom looking for me without waiting for an invitation to
enter. I find it difficult to confront so this has been a challenge for me.
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I have been working many hours to pay for my schooling and to take our family dream
vacation. I do not find my retail job fulfilling at all. I dread most days that I must be engaged in
meaningless talk, selling clothes that only bring a moment of joy and being pushed to open credit
cards when I do not believe that most people should have them. As for the vacation stressor, even
though I am looking forward to our vacation, it has been somewhat stressful organizing and
planning for all of it and making sure I get the best deals since we are on a budget.
My sleeping habits have changed because I am trying to fit in as much as possible into 24
hours. Consequently, these last few weeks of school I have not been getting as much sleep as I
should or resting during the weekend to refresh myself.
After filling out the Life Balance (Robertson R.& Microys G. 2001-2) I realized that I
have a balanced physical, financial, spiritual section of the test. For the most part the intellectual
section is fairly well balanced. Section 14 and 17 are the lowest. Section 14 is low because I
struggle with my relationship with my mom. She has been very controlling, and I have
developed a lot of negative self-talk about that. I desire so much for a healthy relationship with
her that this aspect really bothers me. Number 17 is low for reasons I already mentioned because
of work. My emotional wellbeing is a little rough around the edges. I have a tough time laughing
at myself or anything that others may find funny. When I read in the book that a sign of burn out
is laughing less, I felt like I could relate. My social section is a little bumpy. With 25, 26, 27 and
30 not being as whole and healthy as I would like them to be.
As for taking the Self-Care Assessment (Saakvitne, Pearlman & Staff, 1996) I found that
there is no scoring in the individual sections. However, the questions are thought provoking and
bring awareness. I went through the list and picked out all my twos and threes. I scored low in
taking time off when needed, taking mini vacations, making time away from phone, negotiating
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for my needs, having a peer support group, developing a non-trauma area of professional
interest. I want to be intentional about finding wellness in these areas of my life.
Wellness Strategies
A holistic wellness plan. I love it! After reading and listening to this week’s assignments
and taking the tests I realize that I have been burned out. I also think that I was a little
depressed. I never knew that there was such a thing as compassion fatigue. I was wondering
why I ran from the women at church that want to tell me their latest marriage woes or the lady
who always has problems at work but will not do anything to make a change. I feel as if I have
just enough emotional energy to maintain my family and give emotionally to my children and
husband.
Right now, the areas of my life that need attention are intellectual, emotional and social.
Intellectual is low because of my low satisfaction with my job. However, I am working towards
my masters. This job is only a steppingstone and I do try and find the positive in my work and I
am intentional about my conversations with my co-workers. I push myself to learn the numbers
of the job not because I like it but because I want to understand the business and I want to know
what all the numbers and abbreviations on the spreadsheet are. I feel that my goal in working
there is to help my manager succeed. She is young and this is her career. I try my best to support
and encourage her.
Emotional, yes, others see me as stable and having control over my life. However, my
personality is an introvert and an avoider. I tend to make it look like all is well even if it is not.
Yesterday, my husband called me at work to tell me that one of our dear friends in ministry, a
pastor and his wife, just lost their son to a drug overdose. The son is about the same age as my
daughter. My husband was crying on the other end of the line. As I walked to the back of the
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store and into a dressing room, I also shed a few tears. Then I went to the bathroom and came
out and finished my shift as if nothing had happened. I am trying to be more intentional about
opening. I opened my heart last week to an older woman in our church about what is going on in
real time at my home and the dynamics of what I am dealing with. She just listened and then
prayed with me. It felt good to have a listening ear. I also have a phycologist that I meet with at
least once a week via zoom conference call. Our counseling sessions have been super helpful for
me in dealing with my burnout. He has been encouraging and given me tools to help with the
relationship dynamic with my mom. I am being intentional about healing the relationship with
my mother. I will give her the name and number of my counselor so she can talk with him and
then we can set a date for mediation.
My social wheel was a little lopsided. I need to be more intentional about calling my
friends who are an awesome support group. I just do not make the time to call. I will try calling
each of them once a week and catch up. I am being more intentional about resolving my
conflicts. Whether that is setting a boundary or teaching someone how to treat me.
I feel like the other side of my emotional wheel is strong because I have been practicing
good stewardship with my finances, I have my morning time with God where I journal, pray
and read the Bible. I also keep a consistent walk routine in the morning. I believe that if I did
not have these three components balanced, I would be more of a mess then I already am. I praise
God for sustaining me.
I could connect with Jessica’s interview on Thoughtful Counselor (2018). She talked
about her healing process and part of that was telling her story and connecting with her voice. I
feel as if I do not connect to my voice some times because I am not honest with myself.
Furthermore, telling my story is a method of healing for me. Starting March 10th, my family and I
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will be taking a twelve-week sabbatical. Where were will travel, relax, and spend some much-
needed time together. I want to use this time to be intentional about writing my story so that I can
hear my voice as well as let others know what is inside me.
In summary, I would say that being made aware of my burnout and compassion fatigue
was one of the steps to my wellness. Now with a few goals in mind and some tools in my tool
belt I feel more equipped to be intentional about the path towards wholeness that I have been
longing for. I am excited to start writing my story and connecting with my voice. I also will be
more intentional about calling friends, being more open and vulnerable, and not feeling like I
must have it all under control. I will also keep the areas that I am strong in strengthened. These
are just small steps to some but to me they are game changers.
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References
Granello D.H. and Young M.E. (2019) Counseling Today, Foundations of Professional Identity
(2nd ed., pp. 417). Pearson Education
Holmes T.H. and Rahe. (1967) The Social Readjustment Rating
Scale,
http://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf
Robertson R.& Microys G., Life Balance Assessment and Action Planning Guide, (2001-2)
and Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, https://studentwellness.uci.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2015/04/Assessing-Your-Life-Balance.pdf
Shook, M. (Producer). (2018, June 20). Self-Care, Burnout, and the Way Forward: One
Counselor’s Inspiring Story with Jessica Smith [Audio Podcast]. The Thoughtful
Counselor. Retrieved from https://wp.me/p7R6fn-qi.
Saakvitne, Pearlman & Staff of TSI/CAAP (1996)
Self-Care Assessment https://www.mentoring.org/new-site/wp
content/uploads/2015/09/MARCH_2015 _Self_Care_Assessment.pdf
Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, (1988) Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support,
http://www.yorku.ca/rokada/psyctest/socsupp.pdf
