The Cost of Caring
On the health risks in our work: secondary traumatization, compassion fatigue, and burnout – and how we can prevent becoming diminished helpers in a demanding work environment.
Per Isdal is a clinical psychologist. In 2018, he published his book Medfølelsens Pris (The Cost of Compassion). He will share his personal experiences of how working as a “helper” has affected him. He introduces concepts such as secondary traumatization and compassion fatigue, and offers ideas on how we can "stay sane" in our mentally and emotionally challenging work. One of his main points is that we must share the emotional impact of our work.
Being affected by our clients – feeling anger, helplessness, powerlessness, pain, etc. – and gradually losing our empathy has, in many ways, been a taboo among professional helpers. We need to break that taboo!
Per also presents the “campfire” method – a way to “detox” from the traumatic impact our clients and their lives may have on us.
