When Helping Hurts: The Ethics of Self-Care:  Working in this field can profoundly change us as clinicians and as people.   Whether we call it Secondary PTSD, Vicarious Traumatization, Compassion Fatigue, or simply Burn-out, we all experience these types of phenomena at some time during our career. Because the myth that “good” therapists don’t experience this, we often don’t talk about it, don’t address it, and left unchecked, it can shift ethical decision making and even set the stage for ethical misconduct. This workshop is designed to identify, minimize, and address these issues, while maintaining our ability to be open to the gifts this work can bring our lives.  This workshop will be offered at Southern Polytechnic State from 9:00-12:00. CEs for L.P.C.s will be offered; CEs for psychologists are under review, the status on that will be posted as soon as I am notified.   

Learning Objectives:
   
1.      Through storytelling and didactic presentation, participants will learn a model for understanding and differentiating Secondary PTSD, Vicarious Traumatization, Compassion Fatigue, and Burn-out. Learning will emphasize how to understand these phenomena through multiple theoretical lenses.  
 
2.      Through the use of case material, participants will learn how unaddressed SPTSD/VT/CF can shift the clinicians’ world view in ways that impact subsequent clinical judgment and therapeutic interventions. The ethical implications of each of these shifts will be explored as well as how each can lead to specific ethical dilemmas and misconduct.
 
3.      Through examination of current ethical guidelines and codes of conduct, each participant will gain an understanding of how addressing our own SPTSD/VT/CF is professionally required.
 
4.      Through the use of multiple self-assessments and exercises, each participant can assess their current level of SPTSD/VT/CF and identify particular clinical shifts that have resulted.
 
5.      Through guided exercises, each participant will develop an individual plan to minimize their SPTSD/VT/CF, ameliorate negative shifts in therapeutic practice, and ultimately decrease the clinical risk of ethical violations.
 
6.      While this workshop is exploring some of the corrosive change that can result from doing this work, the ultimate goal is for each clinician to leave with an increased sense of hope, renewal, and openness to the positive, transformative changes that our profession can bring to our lives.