Treating compassion fatigue

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Oct 2004  by Kluft, Richard P

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However, the individual clinician will probably learn the most from the Valent's chapter on survival strategies, Moran's study of how helpers use humor to cope, Baranowsky's informative exploration of the silencing response, and Gentry, Baranowsky, and Dunning's suggestions for the self-treatment of compassion fatigue.

Hypnosis plays no significant role in Treating Compassion Fatigue, a glaring indication that traumatologists in general have not yet appreciated the powerful role hypnosis can play in facilitating many of the types of interventions that are recommended to assist those with compassion fatigue. Hopefully this omission will be rectified as the study of compassion fatigue and its treatment comes of age.

Taken and understood on its own terms, Treating Compassion Fatigue is a valuable contribution to a field of study that is in its early stages of evolution. Notwithstanding its virtues, numerous minor inaccuracies, jarring dysfluencies, and problems in copy-editing compromise the book. For example, a five-chapter section is described as having six chapters, superfluous words appear in otherwise fluent sentences, and some sentences and paragraphs cry out for rewriting. In one instance, a strong correlation is reported between the abbreviation of a concept and that very concept spelled out completely (CF is highly correlated with compassion fatigue).

References

Figley, C.R. (Ed.) (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary posttraumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner: Mazel.

Reviewed by: Richard P. Kluft, MD, PhD, Bala Cynwyd, PA.

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