Compassion fatigue

In honor of Mother's Day, we did a supervision session on compassion fatigue. This is associated with vicarious traumatization and burnout, all of which staff are susceptible to working with forensic populations. I handed out a short article that talked about the symptoms, as well as ways to cope with it. One suggestion was to use relaxation and meditative techniques, so we all drew an image of our ideal self care getaway. One of us went to Italy, another swam with dolphins, another went on a spa retreat in the mountains. It is important to address these kinds of issues periodically and encourage self care when working with forensic populations.