Since April is National Counseling Awareness Month, we wanted to have a section just for our fellow therapists and counselors. Most of us get into this field because of our genuine care for humanity, ability to empathize, and motivation to help others on their healing journeys. It’s no secret that our jobs take a lot of emotional resilience. During this National Counseling Awareness Month, we want to focus also on how we as healers can use CFT and other related tools to build our emotional resilience, engage compassion for self and others, and prevent the dreaded space of burnout.
The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQol) is a resource for those in the helping professions to assess their levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Here are some brief definitions of each domain:
- Compassion Satisfaction: the positive emotional experience we feel from helping others, often connected to our “why” for getting into the field
- Burnout: emotional, mental, physical, and relational exhaustion caused by chronic stress
- Secondary Traumatic Stress: the emotional toll caused by hearing and witnessing others’ experiences of trauma without any reprieve
The ProQol is a free resource you can take to check in on each of your domains related to being in the helping profession. Taking the ProQol can actually help you re-connect with your “why” of getting into the field and flag any early warning signs of emotional depletion. When we practice self-compassion in our personal lives, we are able to show up professionally as the helpers we intend to be. We tune into our own compassion by taking the time and space to use these types of resources to gain insight, self-reflect, and provide ourselves with the same care and attention we provide to our clients. Here is a link to the ProQol and self-scoring: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/dfc1e1a0-a1db-4456-9391-18746725179b/downloads/ProQOL_5_English_Self-Score.pdf?ver=1735595696788
Compassion in Action: Calling You Toward Caring for Yourself and Others
As we honor National Counseling Awareness Month, let this be a reminder that healing thrives in spaces of safety, connection, and compassion. Whether you’re a client building your coping skills toolkit or a provider navigating the complexities of providing client care, compassion-focused therapy offers a path toward greater resilience and self-kindness. By understanding protective factors and tools like the ProQOL assessment, we can better care for both ourselves and others. Therapy isn’t just about symptom relief—it’s about creating a life grounded in meaning, courage, and emotional safety. Imagine what our world might look like if we were all able to offer genuine compassion to ourselves and others.
Recent Comments