The Professional Counselor | Volume 12, Issue 1 51 Counselor Well-Being As defined by the American Counseling Association (ACA; 2014), professional counselors work to empower diverse clients to achieve their personal goals. Specifically, MHCs provide client-driven services in agencies, hospitals, and private practices (American Mental Health Counselors Association [AMHCA], 2020). Counselors are trained to cultivate and monitor their own sense of well-being while providing their expertise and leadership to clients and students who have experienced difficulties related to trauma, injustice, abuse, loss, violence, and distress (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2015; S. M. Lee et al., 2010). Self-care, or the act of cultivating a subjectively defined state of health, is now ubiquitous in counselor education programs and promoted among practitioners (ACA, 2014; CACREP, 2015); however, scholars note that many counselors do not routinely prioritize their own sense of well-being and monitor CS, burnout, and STS (Coaston, 2017). While working closely with clients, practitioners may benefit from reflecting on how their own experiences of personal adversity may influence their work and possibly create a predisposition toward burnout. Burnout of Counselors Burnout is defined as the emotional and physical response to chronic stressors in the workplace that lead to substantial negative consequences (Maslach et al., 2001). Scholars have evaluated the external facets of professional counselors’ work that lead to increased burnout, such as time spent on non-counseling duties, lack of on-the-job support, and negative working environments (Thompson et al., 2014); however, internal factors that lead to burnout, such as counselors’ experiences of adversity, remain unstudied. The ubiquitous nature of trauma and its lifelong impact on clients has gained more attention over the past 20 years (Bemak & Chung, 2017; Debellis, 2001; Webber et al., 2017), yet researchers are only beginning to explore the impact of trauma on the lives and professional experiences of counselors (Conteh et al., 2017; McKim & Smith-Adcock, 2014). Recently, scholars have sought to understand contributing factors that diminish CS and increase burnout (S. M. Lee et al., 2010). In a study of 86 counselors-in-training, Can and Watson (2019) found that a trainee’s degree of resilience and wellness predicted burnout, whereas empathy and supervisory working alliance did not. They did not assess for internal or experiential factors that may have contributed to burnout. Cook et al. (2021) conducted a qualitative inquiry with 246 novice counselors to explore symptoms of burnout that may not be captured in commonly used assessments. The researchers found several predominant themes, including negative emotional experiences such as anxiety, depression and crying spells; fatigue and tiredness; and unfulfillment in work. Participants also reported physical illness and weight gain or loss, self-perceived ineffectiveness as a counselor, and cognitive impairment. Close to 10% of participants stated that an unhealthy environment contributed to their experience of burnout. Cook et al. did not inquire about any personal history that may have also contributed to symptoms of burnout. Counselors and STS Distinct from but related to burnout, STS has been discussed in the literature relating to the wellbeing of helping professions across numerous disciplines (Branson, 2019; Butler et al., 2017; Molnar et al., 2017). Secondary traumatic stress, also called vicarious trauma, is distinguished from burnout by its symptoms overlapping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, and avoidance of distressing memories (Ivicic & Motta, 2017; Molnar et al., 2017). In a study of 220 counselors, Lanier and Carney (2019) discovered that 49.5% of counselors experienced symptoms of vicarious trauma, with 85.5% reporting “I thought about my work with clients when I
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