Holding Space for Healers: Addressing Compassion Fatigue and Secondary Trauma in Helping Professionals
- Carrie
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
In the heart of every nurse, therapist, doctor, counsellor, and crisis worker is a deep-rooted desire to alleviate pain and bring healing. Yet, behind their steady hands and compassionate words, many are quietly grappling with an invisible weight: compassion fatigue and secondary trauma.
What Are Compassion Fatigue and Secondary Trauma?
Compassion fatigue is often described as the "cost of caring." It arises when professionals are continually exposed to the suffering of others and begin to internalize that pain. It's a slow erosion of empathy, emotional resilience, and vitality.
Secondary trauma, sometimes referred to as vicarious trauma, occurs when an individual hears detailed trauma narratives and begins to experience symptoms akin to PTSD. This is especially common among therapists, social workers, emergency responders, and medical staff who regularly witness or hear about violence, abuse, and loss.
While the terms are different, they frequently coexist, leaving professionals emotionally depleted, hypervigilant, numb, or overwhelmed.
The Hidden Toll
Signs can be subtle at first, but over time they intensify:
Chronic physical and emotional exhaustion
Insomnia or nightmares
Detachment and cynicism
Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
Irritability, anger, or sadness
Feeling ineffective or helpless
Withdrawal from friends and loved ones
A sense of dread about work
Left unaddressed, these symptoms can spill into personal relationships, damage one's sense of identity, and ultimately lead to burnout—a state of emotional, physical, and mental collapse.
When Holding Space Reopens Old Wounds: Vicarious Triggers in Health Care Professionals
In addition to the well-documented challenges of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout, many health care professionals—whether in mental health or medical settings—face a more hidden and personal struggle:
being triggered by their own unresolved trauma while holding space for clients and patients.
This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as vicarious triggering or parallel process, can quietly unfold when a client’s story, symptoms, or emotional states mirror a provider’s own past experiences. A nurse with a history of medical trauma might feel a jolt of anxiety when treating a patient with a similar injury. A therapist who has survived abuse might feel emotionally dysregulated when hearing a client describe their own abusive history.
These responses are not signs of incompetence, but of humanity.
Being exposed to pain, fear, and vulnerability on a daily basis can stir up unresolved wounds, often without warning. If unrecognized or unsupported, these triggers can accumulate and exacerbate Compassion Fatigue, lead to emotional exhaustion, or even contribute to feelings of shame and inadequacy.
Recognizing and addressing vicarious triggers is a form of professional self-care. It requires self-awareness, supportive supervision or consultation, and often, access to one's own healing practices. Trauma-informed peer support, reflective journaling, somatic therapy, or even a trusted colleague can help professionals process these moments compassionately and constructively.
Ultimately, honouring our own healing journeys is not a detour from providing care—it’s part of what makes it sustainable and authentic.
Why It’s So Hard to Talk About
One of the most tragic elements of compassion fatigue is the silence surrounding it. Mental health and medical professionals often feel unable—or even forbidden—to express the emotional burden they carry due to professional boundaries and confidentiality requirements.
They're trained to put the needs of others first. They hold space for trauma, but aren’t always offered space themselves. Admitting to struggling can feel like a betrayal of their role or a perceived weakness. Many fear judgment from colleagues or repercussions in their careers if they appear “not coping.”
So the pain stays locked inside—unspoken, unprocessed, and often misunderstood.
A New Path: Energy Healing and Trauma-Informed Coaching
In recent years, many professionals have turned to alternative and holistic methods to find relief and restoration. Practices like Reiki, Integrated Energy Therapy (IET), and Trauma-Informed Coaching are emerging as powerful tools to support emotional release and energetic balance.
Reiki and IET: Restoring the Subtle Body
Reiki is a gentle form of energy healing that works on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. It helps activate the body’s parasympathetic nervous system—the rest-and-digest state—allowing stored trauma to begin releasing. For those who are always giving, Reiki is an invitation to receive.
Integrated Energy Therapy (IET) goes a step further by targeting and releasing specific energetic imprints from trauma, guilt, shame, fear, and grief that may be stored in the body’s cellular memory. IET works to clear these blockages, supporting a return to clarity, purpose, and emotional freedom.
Both modalities offer a non-verbal, confidential, and deeply nurturing space—something many professionals desperately need.
Trauma-Informed Coaching: A Compassionate Mirror
Trauma-Informed Coaching provides a bridge between traditional talk therapy and goal-oriented life coaching. With an understanding of how trauma impacts the nervous system, this form of coaching allows professionals to explore their emotional landscape safely, without judgment or pathologizing.
Where therapy may be limited by dual relationships or licensing boundaries, trauma-informed coaching offers a confidential, empowering space for healing, growth, and accountability—outside the clinical framework.
Reclaiming Wholeness
Helping others shouldn't cost you your own wellbeing. Compassion fatigue and secondary trauma are not signs of failure—they are signs that your empathy is real, that your heart is open, and that your work deeply matters.
But even professionals need healing. Whether it’s through energy work, trauma-informed coaching, peer support, or simply speaking your truth out loud, you deserve to feel whole again.
You are not alone. There is support. There is light. And there is a path back to yourself.
Carrie-Leigh Stockwell, Trauma-Informed Coach and Energy Practitioner, offers a compassionate and integrative approach to support health care professionals who are navigating burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma.
With a focus on nervous system regulation and restoring a sense of internal safety, Carrie-Leigh combines somatic practices, trauma-informed coaching, and subtle energy work to help clients reconnect with their resilience and gently release what no longer serves them.
Her work creates a grounded space where professionals can process emotional residue, deepen their self-awareness, and rebuild nervous system capacity—so they can continue to show up for others without abandoning themselves.
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