Assessing the effectiveness of emotion-focused online intervention in mitigating compassion fatigue and enhancing compassion satisfaction among helping professionals
Corresponding Author
Júlia Halamová
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Correspondence
Júlia Halamová, Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynské luhy 4, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMartin Kanovský
Institute of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorKatarína Greškovičová
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorKatarina Krizova
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorBronislava Šoková
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Júlia Halamová
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Correspondence
Júlia Halamová, Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynské luhy 4, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMartin Kanovský
Institute of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorKatarína Greškovičová
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorKatarina Krizova
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorBronislava Šoková
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: Writing this work was supported by the Vedecká grantová agentúra VEGA under Grant 1/0054/24. Funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V04-00258.
Abstract
This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a newly developed Emotion-Focused Training for Helping Professions in addressing levels of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and self-criticism, both in the short and long term. A randomized controlled trial was conducted, with 667 participants recruited and randomly assigned to either the experimental active or control passive group ending up with 370 participants at follow-up measurement. The experimental group underwent a 14-day asynchronous online training program delivered via email, while the control group did not engage in any specific task except for the pre-, post- and follow-up assessments. The results from the linear mixed effects model analyses indicated significant group-by-time interactions for The Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale, and for The Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue Scale. Specifically, participants in the Emotion-Focused Training for Helping Professions group exhibited a notable reduction in self-criticism and a notable increase in self-compassion and compassion satisfaction over time. The participants' scores of compassion fatigue decreased in both intervention as well as control groups; therefore, the group-by-time interaction was not significant. The findings suggest that the novel Emotion-Focused Training for Helping Professions intervention holds promise in effectively mitigating self-criticism while fostering greater compassion satisfaction and self-reassurance/self-compassion among helping professionals.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
In order to comply with the Ethical committee of Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University Bratislava that approved this study's protocol, data cannot be made accessible through a public repository. However, data are available upon reasonable request for researchers who consent to adhering to the ethical regulations for confidential data.
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