Professional Risks Of Volunteer Psychologists / Psychotherapists Working With Trauma Patients

In conditions of today's Ukraine, even experienced psychotherapists note quite serious and exhausting overload in their professional activities. The study of adverse conditions experienced by professionals has been based on the classification by B. H. Stamm, according to which the professional quality of life of a psychologist / psychotherapist is made up of the satisfaction from empathy and compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue includes the secondary traumatic stress and emotional burnout. The development of negative conditions associated with compassion fatigue is recognized as a major professional risk of the professionals working with the traumatized. There are general emotional, cognitive and behavioral indicators of compassion fatigue that are considered universal for professionals working with different age groups and categories of clients. On the basis of Western and our own research findings, we identified the stressors that significantly increase the risks of development of various symptoms of compassion fatigue. Diagnosis of conditions associated with compassion fatigue (secondary traumatic stress, emotional burnout symptoms) can be done via the assessment of professional quality of life using the appropriate questionnaire and other special instruments described in the article. Recent studies show that understanding of the negative psychological consequences of working with traumatized clients increases psychologists / psychotherapists' awareness of their emotional states, whereas psychologists / psychotherapists' continuing education and retraining as well supervisory group visits are reliable compassion fatigue prevention measures.