Yoga and Mindfulness Program: The Effects on Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction in Social Workers

Abstract

This article is reporting the effectiveness of a yoga and mindfulness program to decrease compassion fatigue and to increase compassion satisfaction in currently employed social workers by using a quasi-experimental design. Additionally, the qualitative arm of this study evaluated the social workers’ perception of their professional relationship with their clients. Eleven social workers participated in the study, with six in the control group and five in the experiment group. Quantitative results were gained by utilizing the ProQOL Version 5 that measures the levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. These results suggest that participation in a brief yoga and mindfulness program may halt the decrease of compassion satisfaction. The qualitative results provide a rich insight into the perceptions of the professional relationship that the social workers have with clients that they identified as being difficult to work with. These results suggest that participation in a yoga and mindfulness program will improve these perceptions.

KEYWORDS:

• burnout
• compassion fatigue
• compassion satisfaction
• mindfulness
• secondary traumatic stress
• yoga

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. Dona Reese, LCSW, for her patience and guidance.