Strategies for Combatting Compassion Fatigue
Attrition rates for teachers are high, and those who teach within special education settings are leaving the profession at a concerning rate. Researchers have documented the reasons for teacher attrition including stress, lack of recognition, and lack of support (Billingsley, 2004; Hagaman & Casey, 2018), and the term “burnout” is often attributed to cases where stress becomes overwhelming for teachers. Burnout—the experience of being “worn out” due to increased levels of workload and/or stress over a prolonged phase—is a real phenomenon for teachers, but another under-researched state known as “compassion fatigue” may be just as important in determining whether or not teachers remain in the profession.
While burnout may result from managing report cards, planning lessons, and marking assignments simultaneously, compassion fatigue is more specifically tied to the efforts and desires to help individuals who are experiencing challenges (Figley, 1995). For any educator who supports students with significant learning needs, the day-to-day investment of effort and worry focused on these marginalized students can lead to a point of debilitation. Fortunately, recuperating from compassion fatigue seems to be much faster than from burnout when the appropriate strategies and approaches are used. In what follows, we provide descriptions and suggestions for strategies and approaches that can help in dealing with compassion fatigue.
Self-Compassion
Self-compassion refers to positive feelings about oneself, particularly during periods of challenge (Neff, 2003). Three components make up self-compassion, including:
• Self-kindness (being kind to oneself in the face of adversity)
• Common humanity (understanding that challenge is universal)
• Mindfulness (attentiveness to one’s own feelings and emotions in the present moment)
Researchers have recognized the contribution of self-compassion to health-promoting behaviours such as good eating habits, sleep, and stress management (Sirois et al., 2015), making it an ideal focus if you are feeling exhausted as a result of emotional investment in your students.
Neff (2020) created an exercise focused on having individuals consider the differences between how they would treat a friend in a difficult situation and how they would treat themselves in the same situation. This exercise emphasizes the importance of caring for ourselves just as we care for others, and highlights that we may treat others differently and better than we treat ourselves even though the situation is the same. You might consider what you would tell a friend who is dealing with exhaustion due to a heavy and consistent emotional investment in their students who are struggling. Distancing oneself from your day-to-day experiences in this way could allow you to identify solutions more objectively that you could use yourself. You might also consider journaling with a focus on self-questions about how you are handling adversity related to compassion fatigue, and how you might engage in more self-compassionate thought and action moving forward. Engaging in this kind of self-reflection involves being present and being attentive to one’s feelings, putting challenges in perspective, and identifying ways to be kind to oneself just as you would be to a friend.
Mindfulness
Though mindset can be viewed as a component of self-compassion, researchers have identified that attentiveness to emotional states and being present may lead to improvements in both professional and personal lives (Gouda et al., 2016), as well as increased positive feelings toward students (Taylor et al., 2016). Several strategies and approaches focus on helping teachers acknowledge greater self-awareness, improve emotional regulation, and reduce feelings of stress (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).
Techniques for engaging in mindfulness include concentration on thoughts, breathing, and physical sensations; guided visualization, which involves the use of mental imagery to attain a tranquil and peaceful state; setting intentions, which allows one to reflect on what is most important to you and what you want to focus on in the present moment. According to Emerson et al., (2017) the recommended time to engage in mindfulness is 45 minutes daily and can be carried out in the morning before work, during a lunch break, or even in between class time for students.
Professional Development
In addition to strategies and approaches that you can use independently, the provision of professional development programs can lead to decreased feelings of compassion fatigue (Cairns, 2007; Hoffman et al., 2007). These sessions should consider knowledge building about what types of things can lead to compassion fatigue and how to recognize symptoms. They should also allow participants to consider and discuss the experiences they have had with compassion fatigue, how these experiences have affected parts of their lives, and how they have dealt with this type of fatigue. Of course, providing strategies like seeking out support, self-care, developing resiliency, and making a commitment to change will leave teachers in the best position to recuperate from compassion fatigue. Planning for professional development focused on compassion fatigue might consider the specific goals of the workshop, professional learning activities that would address these goals, as well as how they might measure or track the value of the professional development in helping teachers deal with compassion fatigue. All of this could be organized into a timeline to sequence actions to encourage participants to evaluate progress and update the plan as needed.
Conclusion
One of the main reasons teachers are leaving their profession is due to feelings of psychological distress in the form of compassion fatigue (Ziaian-Ghafari et al., 2019). Strategies related to self-compassion and mindfulness demonstrate that independent action can help in dealing with compassion fatigue, and other approaches (e.g., prayer) have been identified that can help teachers focus on recuperating without the need of external support.
However, research suggests that professional development focused on compassion fatigue can help teachers with this recuperation, and so planners need to think intentionally about what that should involve in terms of sessions and follow-ups. Adopting these approaches and strategies in schools can help to mitigate and ultimately prevent competent teachers from leaving the profession due to compassion fatigue.
References and Resources
Alliance for Excellent Education. (2004). Tapping the potential: Retaining and developing high quality new
teachers. Washington D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.
Boe, E. E., & Cook, L. H. (2006). The chronic and increasing shortage of fully certified teachers in special
and general education. Exceptional Children, 72(4), 443-460.
Brown, A. J. (2018). Factors that Contribute to Motivation and Burnout among Teachers of Students with
Emotional Behavioral Disorders [Doctoral dissertation, College of William and Mary]. ScholarWorks.
Cairns, K. (2007). Caring for the carers: Preventing and managing secondary traumatic stress. In A. A. Hosin (Ed.), Responses to traumatized children (pp.186-199). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillian.
Cullen, M., & Wallace, L. (2010). Stress management and relaxation techniques in education (SMART)
training manual. Unpublished manual, Impact Foundation: Aurora, Colorado.
Emerson, L. M., Leyland, A., Hudson, K., Rowse, G., Hanley, P., & Hugh-Jones, S. (2017). Teaching
mindfulness to teachers: A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Mindfulness, 8(5), 1136- 1149.
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue as secondary traumatic stress disorder: An overview in CR Figley. Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatised; Brunner/Mazel: Bristol, UK.
Hagaman, J. L., & Casey, K. J. (2018). Teacher attrition in special education: Perspectives from the field. Teacher Education and Special Education, 41(4), 277-291.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press.
Hoffman, S., Palladino, J. M., & Barnett, J. (2007). Compassion Fatigue as a Theoretical Framework to Help Understand Burnout among Special Education Teachers. Online Submission, 2(1), 15-22.
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of educational research, 79(1), 491- 525.
Jennings, P. A., Frank, J. L., Snowberg, K. E., Coccia, M. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2013). Improving classroom learning environments by Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE): Results of a randomized controlled trial. School Psychology Quarterly, 28(4), 374–390.
Koenig, A., Rodger, S., & Specht, J. (2018). Educator burnout and compassion fatigue: A pilot study. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 33(4), 259-278.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
LaBarbera, R., & Hetzel, J. (2016). Christian educators’ use of prayer to cope with stress. Journal of religion and health, 55(4), 1433-1448.
Maring, E. F., & Koblinsky, S. A. (2013). Teachers’ challenges, strategies, and support needs in schools affected by community violence: A qualitative study. Journal of school health, 83(6), 379-388.
Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and identity, 2(3), 223-250.
Neff, K.D. (2020). Exercise 1: how would you treat a friend? Retrieved from: https://self-compassion.org/ exercise-1-treat-friend/
O’Brennan, L., Pas, E., & Bradshaw, C. (2017). Multilevel examination of burnout among high school staff: Importance of staff and school factors. School Psychology Review, 46(2), 165-176.
Poulin, P. A., Mackenzie, C. S., Soloway, G., & Karayolas, E. (2008). Mindfulness training as an evidenced- based approach to reducing stress and promoting well-being among human services professionals. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 46(2), 72-80.
Robinson, O. P., Bridges, S. A., Rollins, L. H., & Schumacker, R. E. (2019). A study of the relation between special education burnout and job satisfaction. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 19(4), 295-303.
Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New York. Guilford Press.
Steer, RA, Rissmiller, DJ, & Beck, AT (2000). Use of the Beck depression inventory-II with depressed geriatric inpatients. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 311318.
Sharp Donahoo, L. M., Siegrist, B., & Garrett-Wright, D. (2018). Addressing compassion fatigue and stress of special education teachers and professional staff using mindfulness and prayer. The Journal of School Nursing, 34(6), 442-448.
Sirois, F. M., Kitner, R., & Hirsch, J. K. (2015). Self-compassion, affect, and health-promoting behaviors. Health Psychology, 34(6), 661–669.
Stanley, A. Q. (2011). Benefits of teacher “connections” in stressful educational settings. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 16, 47–58.
Ziaian-Ghafari, N., & Berg, D. H. (2019). Compassion Fatigue: The Experiences of Teachers Working with Students with Exceptionalities. Exceptionality Education International, 29(1).
Dr. Ian Matheson
Dr. Ian Matheson is certified as an elementary school teacher and has worked as an occasional teacher, as well as an instructor in specialized programs for adolescents who struggle with literacy. Dr. Matheson is currently a Professor of Special Education at Queen’s University.
Sunaira Tejpar
Sunaira Tejpar is a Ph.D. Student at the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. As an educator, her research interest is in better understanding how to support students with exceptionalities in the classroom through a strengths-based perspective.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2022 issue.