Global Compassion Fatigue: A New Perspective in Counselor Wellness

Abstract

This interview is the fourth in the Lifetime Achievement in Counseling Series at TPC that presents an annual interview with a seminal figure who has attained outstanding achievement in counseling over a career. I am honored to present the interview of Liliana Sznaidman, a professional counselor in North Carolina. Ms. Sznaidman is the second practitioner to be interviewed for this annual series. Ms. Sznaidman is a licensed professional counselor and licensed professional counselor supervisor with over 20 years of clinical experience. She is currently the principal owner of a private practice where she provides counseling, clinical supervision, and consultation services. Joshua Smith and Dr. Neal Gray graciously accepted the assignment to interview Ms. Sznaidman. What follows are Ms. Sznaidman's reflections on her counseling career and its impact on her clients.-J. Scott Hinkle, Editor Liliana Sznaidman has over 20 years of experience as a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and licensed professional counselor supervisor (LPCS) in North Carolina. She currently owns a private practice where she provides counseling and psychotherapy to adults, couples, and young adult clients. She also provides clinical supervision and consultation services to pre-licensed counselors and other mental health professionals. Ms. Sznaidman received her master's degree in counseling at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to her master's training, she completed a degree in early childhood education in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to her LPC and LPCS, Ms. Sznaidman holds the credentials of National Certified Counselor and Approved Clinical Supervisor. She also has completed post-master's training in clinical supervision and has received extensive training in psychoanalytic theory and practice. Before going into private practice, Ms. Sznaidman worked as an outpatient psychotherapist providing family counseling services, and as a bilingual therapist. Ms. Sznaidman has been an advocate and asset to her community. She has conducted and co-facilitated psychoeducational groups in Spanish for Latinx adolescents and assisted in providing case management and referrals. Ms. Sznaidman has demonstrated service to the profession by serving as a field placement supervisor for master's-level student interns and provided professional presentations to community agencies. Ms. Sznaidman is a member of several professional organizations, including the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina (LPCANC), where she was the president of the board of directors and helped to advocate for the inclusion of LPCs in continuing education opportunities. She also created the first mentoring program in the association. Ms. Sznaidman is an active member of the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA); the Pro Bono

Examining the relationship between self-care and compassion fatigue in mental health professionals: A critical review.

“…Compassion fatigue occurs across a number of helping professions (Okoli et al, 2020; Robino, 2019). However, as research regarding compassion fatigue has grown, mental health professionals have been identified as an especially high-risk group (Singh et al, 2020; Turgoose & Maddox, 2017).…”

“…These concepts together produce compassion fatigue; its symptoms include “(1) reexperiencing of the primary survivor’s traumatic event; (2) avoidance of reminders and/or numbing in response to reminders; and (3) persistent arousal” (Figley, 1995a; Jenkins & Baird, 2002, p. 424). In short, compassion fatigue is an umbrella term that captures the cognitive schema of struggling providers, whereas the other terms articulate narrower foci on specific components of the phenomenon (Figley, n.d.; Figley & Ludick, 2017; Robino, 2019). Compassion fatigue’s broader lens is why it was selected as a key search term—and focus of and for—this article.…”

Caring for you, me, and us: The lived experience of compassion in counselors.

“…Specifically, researchers have identified two key factors that may add to the burdens on counselors, namely (a) barriers to effective self-care (Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison, 2014) and (b) empathy-based stressors such as empathic distress, empathy fatigue (compassion fatigue), vicarious traumatization, and secondary traumatic stress (Rauvola et al, 2019). These counselor stressors are not inconsequential for clients, as they can lower the standard of care or even pose significant harm to clients through increasing trust violations, hindering the counseling process, and risking ethical breaches (Robino, 2019). Thus, it is critical to identify effective strategies and actions for protecting the long-term well-being of both counselors and their clients.…”

Does contemplative pedagogy increase relational well‐being? A time series analysis

“…Thus experiences like interpersonal and social well-being can be strained in the counselor training experience. Lastly, this study took place in the fall of 2020 when the world was learning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on relational health (Joshi et al, 2021) Though many studies highlight the implications of relational well-being for counselors (e.g., Burck et al, 2014;Cummins, et al, 2007;Robino, 2019;Wolf et al, 2012Wolf et al, , 2014, empirical research of contemplative pedagogy on relational well-being is still lacking in the literature.…”