49 The Professional Counselor™ Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 49–64 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2022 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi: 10.15241/emb.12.1.49 Eric M. Brown, Kristy L. Carlisle, Melanie Burgess, Jacob Clark, Ariel Hutcheon Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences of Clinical Mental Health Counselors as Predictors of Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress Despite an emphasis on self-care to avoid burnout and increase compassion satisfaction within the counseling profession, there is a dearth of research on the developmental experiences of counselors that may increase the likelihood of burnout. We examined the impact of mental health counselors’ (N = 140) experiences of adverse childhood experiences and positive childhood experiences on their present rates of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. We used a cross-sectional, non-experimental correlational design and reported descriptive statistics as well as results of multiple regression models. Results indicated significant relationships among counselors’ rates of adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, and compassion satisfaction and burnout. We include implications for the use of both the adverse and positive childhood experiences assessments in the training of counseling students and supervisees. Keywords: counselors, burnout, childhood experiences, compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress Over the past 20 years, public health research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their deleterious effects on physical and mental health has proliferated and branched out to various disciplines (Campbell et al., 2016; Frampton et al., 2018). More recently, the importance of understanding the implications of ACEs for the mental health of clients has entered the counseling literature (Wheeler et al., 2021; Zyromski et al., 2020), yet the ways in which a counselor’s own experience of ACEs may affect their work have not been examined. The absence of such research is significant given the report that mental health workers have the highest rates of ACEs among those in the helping professions (Redford, 2016). A thorough literature search of PsycINFO, ProQuest, and Google Scholar using terms including, but not limited to, adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences (PCEs), compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and mental health counselors (MHCs), found no peer-reviewed articles that examined the relationship between ACEs or PCEs and counselors’ rates of CS and burnout. Therefore, we chose to examine the effects of early developmental adversity, as well as early protective factors, on the professional quality of life of counselors, as measured by assessing the counselor’s levels of CS, burnout, and STS. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) In the mid-nineties, Felitti et al. (1998), with the support of the Centers for Disease Control, created the ACE Study Questionnaire to study early childhood trauma and deprivation experiences. The ACE Study Questionnaire consists of 10 questions related to whether a person before the age of 18 experienced emotional or physical abuse, substance addiction in the home, parental divorce or separation, a caretaker Eric M. Brown, PhD, LPC, is an assistant professor at DePaul University. Kristy L. Carlisle, PhD, is an assistant professor at Old Dominion University. Melanie Burgess, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis. Jacob Clark, BS, is a graduate student at Old Dominion University. Ariel Hutcheon, MA, is a doctoral student at Old Dominion University. Correspondence may be addressed to Eric M. Brown, 2247 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60614, ebrow107@depaul.edu.
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