Help for the Helper: The Psychophysiology of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma (Norton Professional Books (Hardcover))

How empathy can jeopardize a therapist's well-being. Therapist burnout is a pressing issue, and self-care is possible only when therapists actively help themselves. The authors examine the literature from neurobiology, social psychology, and folk psychology in order to explain how therapists suffer from an excess of empathy for their clients, and then they present strategies for dealing with burnout and stress. "Taking a frank assessment of the risks involved in psychotherapy, such as compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization, Help for the Helper challenges current thinking about the ways in which therapists are affected by their clients. Based on the latest neurobiological research and drawing from the literature in social psychology and folk psychology, Rothschild identifies three major processes that can, when left unchecked, pose enormous risks to a professional's well-being."--Jacket

Therapist burnout is a pressing issue, and self-care is possible only when therapists actively help themselves. The authors examine the literature from neurobiology, social psychology, and folk psychology in order to explain how therapists suffer from an excess of empathy for their clients, and then they present strategies for dealing with burnout and stress.

Therapist burnout is a pressing issue and self-care is possible only when therapists actively help themselves. This book examines the literature from neurobiology, social psychology and folk psychology in order to explain how therapists suffer from an excess of empathy for their clients, and then presents strategies for dealing with burnout