Compassion Fatigue in Education: An Introduction to Effective Self-Care

Description

This course does not offer CE Credits. The same course is available for purchase and offers 1 CE hour for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

The weight of collective trauma on educators has never been heavier. In the wake of global crises and systemic challenges, professionals in education are burning out while quietly bearing the emotional toll of their students’ pain.

In a time when showing up for others is expected—even when you're running on empty—this course offers a necessary pause to reflect, recover, and rebuild. It's an invitation to gain clarity, renew your purpose, and reclaim your well-being.

Dr. Sonja Sutherland, PhD, LPC, ACS, BC-TMH, brings over two decades of experience as a clinician, educator, and advocate for mental wellness. Her work spans trauma treatment, supervision, and culturally informed clinical practices. With warmth and clarity, Dr. Sutherland guides participants through the critical yet often overlooked realities of compassion fatigue in education, empowering clinicians to address the risks of professional impairment with skill and self-awareness.

Dr. Sutherland’s approach to teaching is grounded in both research and lived experience. She translates complex psychological concepts into practical, actionable insights, making it easier for clinicians to assess their current state and implement realistic strategies for self-care. Her framework acknowledges both individual and community-level trauma—helping you navigate the emotional fallout while promoting sustainable wellness.

This course explores how trauma exposure, both direct and indirect, leads to secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout. You'll examine how the pandemic amplified stress within school communities and disrupted professional and personal equilibrium. Through engaging content and self-reflective activities, you’ll assess your wellness, explore barriers to self-care, and begin developing a plan to restore emotional and physical balance.

Key Takeaways:

• Recognize the early warning signs: Understand how trauma exposure and systemic stress contribute to burnout in educational professionals.
• Reclaim your well-being: Assess your own self-care habits and identify the impact compassion fatigue has on your professional performance and personal life.
• Plan for resilience: Begin mapping out a tailored self-care plan to improve functioning and prevent future impairment.

Why this course?

• Rooted in real-world experience: Dr. Sutherland’s extensive background in trauma-informed care and education ensures this course speaks directly to your lived professional challenges.
• Designed for meaningful impact: Unlike generic wellness trainings, this course blends clinical insight, self-assessment tools, and practical steps for behavioral change.
• Empowered by values: Offered by Telehealth Certification Institute, a leader in behavioral health education committed to excellence, kindness, and clinician wellness.

Learning Objectives:

• List 2 contributors to vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout in educators and the related impact on professional impairment.
• Assess personal wellness factors and the possible impact of compassion fatigue on current wellness.
• Identify 2 areas for personalized development of a self-care plan.

Whether you’re an educator, counselor, or behavioral health clinician working in schools, this course offers a lifeline back to professional vitality and personal peace. Allow yourself this time to recalibrate—and return to your work more grounded, present, and whole.

Add this course to your cart to begin learning instantly.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study program and consists of over 1 hour of video instruction, and an evaluation.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructors and Disclosures

Instructor

About Dr. Sonja Sutherland, PhD, LPC, ACS, BC-TMH

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Sutherland is the founder and CEO of Legacy Changers Worldwide, an organization dedicated to providing family education and mental and emotional wellness resources. The Legacy Changers Worldwide umbrella has provided support through the Legacy Changers Counseling Center, The Family Healing Room, VASAYO, and previously as host of a local Atlanta talk-radio show focusing on family relationships and mental wellness. In addition, Dr. Sutherland provides intermediate and advanced continuing education workshops for licensed clinicians, and post-masters supervision for associate licensed clinicians through Legacy Professional Development & Training. Services and programs offered by Dr. Sutherland.

In the mental health field since 1998, and licensed since 2001, Dr. Sutherland has provided therapeutic services in the private practice, psychiatric residential, in-home, and outpatient mental health settings, for adolescents and adults, through individual, group, couples, and family therapy. She has specialized in working with adolescents, couples and families for the last 22 years. One of Dr. Sutherland’s historical research interests has been evidence-based treatment within residential settings for commercially sexually exploited youth, which was a primary focus of her dissertation and clinical expertise during her years as a clinician in the psychiatric residential setting. Her ongoing research interests include clinician-in-training cultural competence development and clinical supervision.  Within the last 5 years, Dr. Sutherland has provided training, researched, and published in the areas of racial trauma, cultural competence development and training, the provision of culturally-informed clinical intervention and supervision, and social justice advocacy. Dr. Sutherland's CV.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

This course does not offer CE credits, just great content.

The same course is available for purchase and offers 1 CE hour for behavioral health clinicians. See "related products" below.

This course is a non-interactive, online self-study.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of completion to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement