TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 4-FULL ISSUE

274 The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 4 Recognizing this area of need within the profession, ACA established the Taskforce on Counselor Wellness and Impairment in 2003 to address the needs of impaired counselors (Lawson & Venart, 2005). The taskforce identified goals for education for counselors on impairment and how to prevent it, securing treatment for impaired counselors, teaching self-care strategies, and advocating within the organization and at both the state and national levels to address issues associated with impairment. Although the taskforce focused on the broader topic of impairment, compassion fatigue remains a component of this experience. The creation, cultivation, and maintenance of a wellness lifestyle is a primary means of addressing and rectifying counselor impairment and compassion fatigue (Lawson & Venart, 2005). Wellness is defined as “a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated by the individual to live life more fully” (Myers, Sweeney, &Witmer, 2000, p. 252). Wellness and prevention are core components of counselors’ professional identities (Mellin, Hunt, & Nichols, 2011). As a result, researchers have studied the benefits of wellness strategies for counselors (Cummins, Massey, & Jones, 2007), counselor educators (Wester, Trepal, & Myers, 2009), and CITs (Yager & Tovar-Blank, 2007). Additionally, Figley (1995) specifically identified poor self-care as a primary risk factor for experiencing compassion fatigue, and Chi Sigma Iota’s (CSI; n.d.) advocacy themes, specifically Theme 6, outline the need for advocacy related to prevention and wellness for clients and counselors (Lee, 2012). The development of a taskforce, the extensive literature associated with compassion fatigue and wellness, and CSI’s identification of wellness as an area of advocacy indicate a clear relationship between counselor experience and counselor practice. Based on previous research, ACA’s stance on counselor self- care, and humans’ innate desire to engage in complex processes to achieve optimal functioning and well- being, it is beneficial for counselors to consider a new phenomenon related to their consistent exposure to global issues through media and social media. Counselors currently conceptualize compassion fatigue as a linear process occurring as a result of the cumulative direct exposure to clients’ distressing experiences. This article presents an expanded perspective on counselor compassion fatigue occurring as a result of exposure to current events and issues. Furthermore, this article offers a language for this experience as well as a conceptualization of the phenomenon. GCF I suggest the term global compassion fatigue to describe the process by which an individual experiences extreme preoccupation and tension as a result of concern for those affected by global events without direct exposure to their traumas through clinical intervention. GCF requires examining compassion fatigue outside of client-specific experiences and within a larger context. This invites counselors and CITs to explore how they are human and existing in a conflicted, polarized, and oftentimes troubling world. Figure 1 provides a visual depiction of these constructs. After exposure to a traumatic global event, humans experience an acute stress-related psychological response (Holman, Garfin, & Silver, 2013); for counselors this may manifest as GCF because of their foundational helping skills rooted in the ability to feel and exhibit empathy for the issues faced by others (A. J. Clark, 2010). Once this response occurs, counselors can utilize wellness and self-care strategies and engage in social justice advocacy efforts as deterrents to GCF. If they bypass these methods, they might experience the extreme preoccupation and tension that are indicators of GCF. However, counselors can interrupt and manage their GCF by moving to wellness and advocacy strategies.