From Compassion Fatigue to Vitality: Memoir With Art Response for Self-Care

Abstract

The combination of an art therapist’s personal trauma with secondary traumatic stress can lead to compassion fatigue. Inspired by narrative art therapy methods, the author engaged in memoir writing, art responses, authentic movement, and public exhibition. This creative life review identified ways in which her nervous system responses to clients’ traumas became tangled with personal implicit memories from childhood trauma and attachment injuries. The creative process identified overburdened and untended personal life-stage initiations (e.g., entering midlife), which emerged as 2 insights: pain numbing to cope with juvenile arthritis and restricted early attachment. This awareness led to a better understanding of fight–flight–freeze responses and improved relationships with clients and others.

Keywords: :

• Compassion fatigue
• narrative art therapy
• memoir
• initiation
• therapist self-care

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to art therapist elder Maxine Junge and depth-psychologist Francis Weller for their wisdom and supportive witnessing of my process.

Additional information

Funding

The memoir writing with art response process was supported through the Indianapolis Arts Council Creative Renewal Fellowship (2017).

Notes on contributors

Liza Hyatt

Liza Hyatt, ATR-BC, ATCS, LMHC, is an art therapist at Indiana University Health Charis Center for Eating Disorders in Indianapolis, IN. She is also adjunct faculty in the Masters in Art Therapy program at St. Mary of the Woods College in Indiana.