Abstract
The breathless development of Chinese society has increased the demand for mental health services. Private practice mental health counselors are vulnerable to compassion fatigue, which can affect their personal well-being and the quality of services they provide. However, there is a notable scarcity of research focusing on compassion fatigue among this group. This study aimed to contribute to the field by providing a comprehensive profile of private practice mental health counselors in China, offering the first assessment of their compassion fatigue level, and examining the specific impact of characteristic variables on this phenomenon. A total of 109 counselors completed the Compassion Fatigue Short-Scale (CFSS) and a demographic characteristic form. The findings revealed a counseling group with limited maturity and professionalism, primarily holding bachelor’s degrees, working part-time, and having limited experience in practice and supervision. The levels of compassion fatigue were found to be moderate to mild, with educational level and years of practice serving as negative predictors. The findings would enhance the understanding of the profile of private practice counselors in China, supporting the development of interventions to address compassion fatigue for local practice.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the Shandong Psychological Association for their assistance in data collection. We are also thankful to the practicing counselors who generously participated in the study pro bono.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Zhuoqun Wang. Shuai Hong designed the study, reviewed the eligible articles, drafted the manuscript. Prof. Zahyah Hanafi commented on previous versions of manuscript and approved the final version. All authors agree to be accountable for the content of the work.
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Hong, S., Hanafi, Z. & Wang, Z. Unveiling compassion fatigue: a profiling study among mental health counselors in private practice settings. Curr Psychol 43, 14348–14357 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05461-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05461-9