Philosophy Commons^™

The Experience Of Compassion Fatigue In School Counselors, Melissa Lynn Manganaro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School counselors play a crucial role in U.S. education. In recent years, their student caseloads have increased as more students are diagnosed with a mental health disorder. With additional stressors from providing social/emotional counseling, school counselors are vulnerable to secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue; however, research was limited on counselors' experiences of these conditions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain understanding of school counselors' experiences of compassion fatigue and strategies for coping. Ten school counselors from public schools in Arizona, who had scored in the moderate- to high-risk range on the Compassion Fatigue Self-Test, …