Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma
Sustaining Ourselves While Supporting Others
Sunday 22nd November 2026 | 1:00-3:00pm | Online
Working in the helping professions is both rewarding and emotionally demanding. Alongside the privilege of supporting others, we can also experience the cumulative impact of hearing distress, trauma and loss. Recognising this impact is an important part of sustaining ourselves and our practice.
What We Will Explore
This Practice Matters session introduces compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction, considering how these experiences can influence both professional and personal wellbeing.
- The similarities and differences between compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress.
- Charles Figley’s contribution to our understanding of compassion fatigue.
- The Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) questionnaire as a framework for personal reflection.
- The balance between the emotional challenges of helping work and the satisfaction that comes from making a difference.
- Practical ways of maintaining wellbeing and sustaining ourselves throughout professional life.
You will leave with a greater understanding of the impact of helping work, together with practical ideas to support your own wellbeing and professional practice.
Investment: £25 per person. A CPD Certificate of Attendance will be provided.