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Preventing Counselor Impairment
Orientation to Counseling Professional Identity (Liberty
University)
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Running head: PREVENTING COUNSELOR IMPAIRMENT 1
Preventing Counselor Impairment
Roslyn L. Broadhurst
Liberty University
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PREVENTING COUNSELOR IMPAIRMENT 2
Abstract
To prevent physical, emotional, and mental impairment, professional counselors must
maintain healthy relationships with their clients, other counselors, their friends, and above all
their families. They need to provide descriptions of the strategies they use to assess their self-
care and their physical, emotional, and mental wellness. The American Counseling Association
(ACA) recognized that professional counselors run the risk of compassion fatigue, burnout,
vicarious traumatization, and impairment if they do not maintain their physical, emotional, and
mental wellness through self-care. Therefore, this paper provided definitions for each term, to
include impairment as defined within the counseling profession. This paper provided an
assessment of the incidence of impairment among the professional counseling community. In
addition, this paper provided a description of the signs and symptoms of counselor impairment.
This paper provided an assessment of the risk factors that make counselors vulnerable to the
development of impairment. Finally, this paper provided an assessment of the activities that
promote wellness and lead to compassion satisfaction among professional counselors.
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Preventing Counselor Impairment
Often counselors believe they are invincible, that they can handle anything their clients
throw at them; however, inevitably, something occurs to prove they are only human after all.
Therefore, to prevent physical, emotional, or mental impairment counselors must maintain
healthy relationships with their clients, colleagues, friends, and most importantly their families.
To maintain healthy relationships, they need to have strategies for assessing their self-care. In
other words, they need to know how to assess their physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
The ACA recognized this need for assessing well-being to prevent running the risk of burnout,
vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, and impairment. Therefore, this paper provided
definitions of these terms, an assessment of the incidence of impairment, some characteristics of
counselor impairment, risk factors, and an assessment of activities that promote wellness and
compassion satisfaction. For this reason, this paper is an assessment of Lawson and Venart’s
(2005) article titled Preventing Counselor Impairment: Vulnerability, Wellness, and Resilience.
Definitions
This paper defined several terms concerned with the physical, emotional, or mental well-
being of professional counselors. Compassion fatigue occurs when counselors feel intense
sorrow sympathy, fatigue, apathy, and emotional distress because of constant demands from their
clients (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2002, para. 5). Vicarious traumatization
occurs when counselors have empathic connections with clients who disclose traumatic pasts
causing counselors to feel their pain so intensely that it impacts them physically, emotionally,
and mentally (ACA, 2002, para. 6). Burnout occurs when counselors work with emotionally
demanding clients for unusually long periods, which leads to physical, emotional, and mental
exhaustion, cynicism, and a decreased sense of effectiveness (ACA, 2002, para. 7; Lawson &
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Myers, 2011, p. 164). Therapeutic impairment occurs when counselors cannot function in a
professional capacity without compromising their clients’ care, which can result in possible harm
to their clients because of substance abuse or dependency, mental illness, personal crisis, or a life
(ACA, 2002, para. 2; Lawson & Venart, 2005, p. 243; Lawson, Venart, Hazler, & Kottler, 2007,
p. 12). Compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and burnout can lead to counselor
impairment if they remain untended by medical and mental health professionals. Compassion
satisfaction occurs when counselors feel pleasure for a job well-done (Lawson & Myers, 2011, p.
164), and wellness occurs when counselors live life to the fullest, achieve their potential, and
obtain optimal health and well-being in mind, body, and spirit (Lawson et al., 2007, p. 12).
Incidences
Incidences of therapeutic impairment include any occurrence of compassion fatigue,
vicarious traumatization, or burnout that result in counselors who cannot function in the capacity
of counselor without causing potential harm to their clients. As Lawson and Venart (2005)
stated,
Those who practice in the helping field often have an acute sense of empathy to the
experiences of others. It is not simply the empathy that counselors possess, but empathy
coupled with the intimate exposure to the struggles and suffering that clients present,
which can take a toll. (p. 244)
Many counselors believe they are infallible, and refuse to practice effective self-care, leaving
themselves open for burnout, vicarious traumatization, or compassion fatigue. The greatest
incidence of therapeutic impairment takes place within agencies that “set unrealistic expectations
for clinicians to carry a large caseload with many seriously troubled clients” (Lawson & Venart,
2005, p. 244). When counselors have large caseloads, they do not have time to practice effective
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self-care. Another incidence of therapeutic impairment worth mentioning occurs when hospitals
release clients before counselors determine they are ready to leave, or when counselors must
work longer hours, see more clients, produce results more quickly, work with highly stressed
clients, and set aside their own well-being (Lawson & Venart, 2005, p. 244). Not only do
counselors believe themselves to be invincible, clients and their families believe them to be
invulnerable as well. This invulnerability results in creating barriers to their physical, emotional,
or mental well-being.
Characteristics
Characteristics of counselor impairment are the hazards that can cause counselors to be
more susceptible to burnout, vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, and eventually
impairment if they do not seek help. Lawson and Venart (2005) list the following hazards:
clients having an unsolvable problem that must be solved; all clients not being honors
students (they may not have the skills or resources to meet their goals); a readiness gap
often between them and us; our inability to say no; constant empathy, interpersonal
sensitivity, and one-way caring; elusive measures of success; and normative failure. (p.
244)
Lawson et al. (2007) provided some characteristics by stating, “As counselors, we are taught to
see the world through our client’s eyes, to experience our client’s feelings through empathy, and
to connect to our client’s pain when they are vulnerable” (p. 5). They continue by saying that
these strengths are counselors’ greatest strengths and their greatest weaknesses because they
leave counselors feeling vulnerable to therapeutic impairment (p. 5). Any one of these
characteristics by itself can lead to burnout, vicarious traumatization, or compassion fatigue
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when it occurs for a long time; but, when counselors suffer from several at once, even for a short
time, therapeutic impairment is bound to occur.
Risk Factors
Risk factors can leave counselors vulnerable to the development of impairment by
causing them to suffer from vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Some of
these risk factors are:
the ability to obtain quality supervision; the nature of our clientele (e.g., vulnerable
children, complexity of problems, safety concerns); the nature of our workplace (e.g.,
insufficient resources or vacation time; lack of input into the decision-making process of
the organization; current policies prohibiting best practice treatment); our training,
education, and experience; current stressors and/or changes in our life outside of work;
our natural coping style; a personal history of trauma; and beliefs that limit our likelihood
of seeking support. (Lawson & Venart, 2005, p. 244)
In addition to these factors, Lawson and Venart (2005) mentioned the exposure to primary and
secondary trauma and violence (p. 244). This can lead to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
a debilitating condition that will lead to burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, or
even total counselor impairment if counselors do not seek help. If total impairment occurs,
counselors may have to forfeit their licensure, and will have to show proof of rehabilitation
before they can apply for licensure once again.
Conclusion
Counselor impairment prevents counselors from helping their clients without causing
them harm. To prevent impairment, counselors need to be aware of their own physical,
emotional, and mental health. They need to strive towards wellness by using self-care
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techniques, like a holistic approach that will preserve and maintain their wellness. One such self-
care technique is to participate in career-sustaining behaviors (CSBs). Some of the CSBs are:
maintaining a sense of humor, spending time with family and friends, maintaining self-
awareness to perform self-care techniques, engage in some type of exercise, use positive self-talk
to improve self-esteem, take regular vacations, maintain alone time spent in self-reflection,
spend time in prayer or meditation to build and maintain spirituality, and engage in leisure
activities that will quiet the mind (Lawson, 2007, p. 28). There are many other CSBs that will
help counselors to perform self-care and maintain a holistic self-aware image that will build their
wellness and help to prevent counselor impairment.
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References
American Counseling Association (ACA). (2002). American Counseling Association’s taskforce
on counselor wellness and impairment. Retrieved from http://www.creating-
joy.com/taskforce/tf_definitions.htm
Lawson, G. (2007). Counselor wellness and impairment: A national survey. Journal of
Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 46(1), 20-34. Retrieved from
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Lawson, G., & Myers, J. E. (2011). Wellness, professional quality of life, and career-
sustaining
behaviors: What keeps us well? Journal of Counseling and Development, 89(2), 163-
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Lawson, G., & Venart, B. (2005). Preventing counselor impairment: Vulnerability, wellness,
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Lawson, G., Venart, E., Hazler, R. J., & Kottler, J. A. (2007). Toward a culture of counselor
wellness. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 46(1), 5-19.
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com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/212447632?accountid=12085
