The Role of Compassion for Self and Others, Compassion Fatigue and Subjective Happiness on Levels of Well-Being of Mental Health Professionals

Archontia Mantelou,Eirini Karakasidou

doi:10.4236/psych.2019.103021

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the role of compassion for self and others, compassion fatigue and subjective happiness on levels of well-being of mental health professionals as well as to contribute new knowledge by investigating whether and to what extent subjective happiness of therapists can be predicted. A sample population of the online survey comprised 58 mental health professionals living and working in Greece-Athens and the method of recruitment was by opportunity sampling. This particular study employed a series of two-tailed Pearson r correlation analyses as well as independent samples t-test and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis for the analysis of the data. The results that revealed through the four different questionnaires (Self-Compassion Scale, Professional Quality of Life Scale, Compassion-for-Others-Scale and Subjective Happiness Scale) showed that self-compassion has a protective function for the therapists. It enhances their subjective happiness, which in turn protects mental health and professional quality of life of therapists by reducing the negative effects of compassion fatigue. These findings highlight the importance of self-compassion, compassion for others and subjective happiness among therapists, as they are correlated with compassion fatigue.

Highlights

This study aimed to explore the role of compassion for self and others, compassion fatigue and subjective happiness on levels of well-being of mental health professionals as well as to contribute new knowledge by investigating whether and to what extent subjective happiness of therapists can be predicted
The correlations between them were analyzed in order to check for variables’ inter-correlations indicating that correlations were generally within the small to medium range and they are presented in Table 1 below
For the first hypothesis of the study, in order to investigate the correlation between the levels of self-compassion and subjective happiness, a Pearson (r) correlation analysis was applied to the data

Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to explore the role of compassion for self and others, compassion fatigue and subjective happiness on levels of well-being of mental health professionals as well as to contribute new knowledge by investigating whether and to what extent subjective happiness of therapists can be predicted. The results that revealed through the four different questionnaires (Self-Compassion Scale, Professional Quality of Life Scale, Compassion-for-Others-Scale and Subjective Happiness Scale) showed that self-compassion has a protective function for the therapists It enhances their subjective happiness, which in turn protects mental health and professional quality of life of therapists by reducing the negative effects of compassion fatigue. These findings highlight the importance of self-compassion, compassion for others and subjective happiness among therapists, as they are correlated with compassion fatigue. Aggravating factors pertaining to therapists themselves include the trauma history of the therapist, the absence of a supportive network, the lack of experience, the difficulty in maintaining emotional boundaries and the hyper-engagement with their servants (Adams, Matto, & Harrington, 2001; Dunkley & Whelan, 2006; Rupert & Morgan, 2005; Skovholt & Ronnestad, 2003)

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion