346
job take over all aspects of their life. But then I met other counselors who showed
me how to ‘have it all,’ and I realized I could do it too. You can be a good counselor
and leave work at work when you leave at 5 pm’” (Runyon et al. 2010 , p. 376).- Do not take your problems home with you. Use thought-stopping techniques to
prevent worrying about patients when you are not at work. For instance, if you
catch yourself worrying, try distracting yourself, or tell yourself that you will
deal with the worry tomorrow at work at a specific time, and then focus on what
you are doing in the here and now. - Draw upon a religious or philosophical belief system for support (Wells et al.
2016 ). - Schedule the first 30 min of each day to collect your thoughts and prepare for the
events ahead of you. - Participate in peer supervision. Peer supervision can act as a buffer against stress
and burnout, can help you manage your genetic counseling cases, and can
strengthen your clinical skills (Middleton et al. 2007 ; Peters 2010; Zahm et al.
2008 ). - Seek personal counseling or psychotherapy to deal with crises you are experienc-
ing at work (Reeder et al. 2017 ; Runyon et al. 2010 ; Volz 2000; Weil 2010 ). - Build a support system (Runyon et al. 2010 ; Peters 2010). Make friends with
people who are outside of the genetic counseling field (Volz 2000). - Give yourself some real downtime where you turn off the computer and put away
the paperwork (Volz 2000). - If at all possible, schedule time during the day (midmorning, midafternoon) that
is just for you to take a walk, relax your muscles, meditate, etc. (Fine and Glasser
1996 ; Miller and Sprang 2017 ). - Think in sane ways (Fine and Glasser 1996 ; Miller and Sprang 2017 ). To a great
extent, distress comes from what we tell ourselves about what we experience
rather than from the experience itself. For example, “I must say ‘yes’ to every
request made of me.”; “I can’t make any mistakes or everyone will think I’m
incompetent.”; “If I were a good genetic counselor, I wouldn’t be feeling so over-
whelmed.”; “If I were a good counselor, I would have all the information in my
head.” Try to replace these irrational ideas with more reasonable ones.
12.3 Compassion Fatigue
"the expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by
it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet"
(Remen 1996 , p. 52, as cited in Miller and Sprang 2017 ).
Have you ever lost sleep over the distressing experiences of someone you coun-
seled? Avoided certain activities or situations because they remind you of your
patients’ distressing experiences? Suffered the distress of someone you counseled?
Because of genetic counseling, felt “on edge” about various things? If you answered
“yes” to any of these questions, you may have experienced compassion fatigue.
12 Genetic Counseling Dynamics: Transference, Countertransference