TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 4-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 4 279 to manage compassion fatigue can be used for GCF. Supervision, personal counseling, and consultation are all avenues of accountability, monitoring, and fidelity to the profession (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014). Although advocacy can be another tangible method of preventing or mitigating GCF, activism can cause emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion (Chen & Gorski, 2015); therefore, advocacy paired with careful attention to wellness can allow counselors to be most effective in helping to address global issues (Roysircar, 2009). Self-care practices and a wellness lifestyle may also act as protective factors to GCF. Myers et al. (2000) noted, “If one’s spirituality is healthy . . . [it] provides a firm foundation and core for the rest of the components of wellness” (p. 258). This indicates counselors developing an optimistic outlook in response to global events creates greater buffering or management of GCF. Similarly, these authors also state that self-direction allows a person to “move smoothly through time and space” (p. 258). The cumulative pressure of global stressors necessitates firm self-direction to maintain focus in the chaos of present time and space. Wellness is cumulative and enhances longevity for professional practice (Myers et al., 2000). Ultimately, counselors are ethically responsible for ensuring they practice healthy boundaries and work within their competencies (ACA, 2014). An open dialogue with colleagues, self-awareness of strong responses to global events, pursuing systemic change through advocacy, and cultivating personal wellness encourage management of GCF (Robino & Pignato, 2017). GCF holds particular relevance for counselors of color. Individuals from historically marginalized populations must understand, identify, and address their experiences and the effects of systemic and individualized racism as well as the psychological trauma of oppression and marginalization (Carter, 2007). The number of publicized events that occur in relation to civil rights issues and social justice concerns warrant additional consideration of GCF in specific populations. For example, police brutality against Black males can cause GCF in many counselors, particularly in counselors of color because of the negative psychological health outcomes for communities of color that stem from racism and discrimination (Carter & Forsyth, 2009; Comas-Díaz, 2016). Furthermore, violence (e.g., the Charleston, South Carolina, shooting targeting a specific religious group consisting of people of color and the Charlottesville, Virginia, protests that resulted in the death of a counter-protester) and localized natural disasters (e.g., fires in Tennessee and the Western United States that affected entire communities and hurricanes like Harvey, Irma, and Maria that caused devastation in the Southern United States and Puerto Rico) also increase the risk of GCF in counselors indirectly or somewhat directly exposed to these events. At the time of this writing, the president of the United States has signed an Immigration Executive Order ( Executive Order No. 13,769, 2017) that calls for banning residents of certain Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States. In addition, the public expressed outrage at the removal of children from families seeking asylum at the U.S.– Mexico border (Goldstein, 2018). Such traumatic events become a systemic, multi-level public health issue (Magruder, McLaughlin, & Elmore Borbon, 2017) and increase the possibility of GCF among concerned individuals, including counselors and counseling students. The emergence of this concept paves the way for a broad range of research avenues. First, I recommend the study of GCF in counselor education programs. With CITs particularly sensitive to the nuances of the counseling profession (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014), the critical period of graduate education requires an examination into how GCF can affect counselor development. Second, the management of GCF calls for greater practice of self-care and exercising of insight. For example, researchers could explore the use of mindfulness and reflexivity in assessing how to treat counselors impacted by global events. Additionally, future research could explore the relationship of counselors’ social media use and GCF experiences. Statistics indicating the increase of social media as a news source (Gottfried & Shearer, 2016) raise questions of how counselors are impacted by their own internet activity. Researchers also could investigate counselor advocacy on social media. Although