150 The Professional Counselor™ Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages 150–163 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2024 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi: 10.15241/emb.14.2.150 Eric M. Brown, Melanie Burgess, Kristy L. Carlisle, Desmond Franklin Davenport, Michelle W. Brasfield Adverse Childhood Experiences of Professional School Counselors as Predictors of Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress School counselors work closely with students and are often the first point of contact regarding traumatic experiences. It is generally understood that exposure to other individuals’ trauma may lead to a reduction in compassion satisfaction and an increase in secondary traumatic stress, while long-term exposure may result in professional burnout. This study examined the role of school counselors’ (N = 240) own adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as related to compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Results indicated that 50% of the professional school counselors in this convenience sample had personal histories of four or more ACEs, which is significantly higher than the general public and passes the threshold for significant risk. Results indicated that the ACEs of school counselors in the present study, as well as some demographic variables, significantly correlated with rates of compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Keywords: school counselors, compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, adverse childhood experiences As counselors in PK–12 settings, professional school counselors (PSCs) are uniquely positioned to deliver comprehensive school counseling programs that attend to all students’ academic and social/ emotional needs (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2019). Providing these comprehensive services may lead to burnout and secondary traumatic stress, which can adversely impact PSCs’ ability to meet students’ academic and social/emotional needs (Mullen & Gutierrez, 2016). Although research has examined various factors that may contribute to burnout such as caseload, lack of administrative support, and tasks unrelated to school counseling (Bardhoshi et al., 2014; Fye, Bergen, & Baltrinic, 2020; Fye, Cook, et al., 2020), few studies have examined whether personal historical factors such as childhood adversity may be related to burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Though self-care is often encouraged in counselor education programs and promoted among practitioners (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014; Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2015), we lack knowledge of which PSCs may be more vulnerable to burnout or secondary traumatic stress (Coaston, 2017). Therefore, it is important that we better understand whether a PSC’s own historical experiences of adversity or trauma may make them more susceptible to burnout and secondary traumatic stress, as this may impact their ability to meet students’ needs. Adverse Childhood Experiences Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass 10 maladaptive childhood experiences, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, substance abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, divorce, incarcerated family member, household mental illness, and domestic abuse (Crandall et al., Eric M. Brown, PhD, LPC, is an assistant professor at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University. Melanie Burgess, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis. Kristy L. Carlisle, PhD, is an assistant professor at Old Dominion University. Desmond Franklin Davenport, MS, is a doctoral student at the University of Memphis. Michelle W. Brasfield, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis. Correspondence may be addressed to Eric M. Brown, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, 72 E. Concord St., Boston, MA 02118, ebrown1@bu.edu.
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