Transcending Empathy Fatigue by Cultivating Empathy Resiliency

Description

Empathy fatigue is real—and it can quietly erode a clinician’s capacity to serve with clarity, connection, and compassion. But with the right tools, it can be recognized, understood, and reversed.

As behavioral health professionals, we often carry the emotional residue of others’ trauma. The toll can be cumulative and invisible—until it isn’t. This course invites you to explore the deeper dimensions of empathy fatigue and provides an evidence-based framework to restore your energy, ethics, and effectiveness.

This 3-hour self-study course is taught by Dr. Mark A. Stebnicki, the nationally recognized developer of the Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) and the counselor educator who coined the term “empathy fatigue” in 1998. With over 35 years of experience in rehabilitation and mental health, Dr. Stebnicki brings academic rigor, clinical insight, and compassionate guidance to this powerful topic.

Through engaging video instruction and a 50+ page companion workbook, Dr. Stebnicki guides learners through the origins, consequences, and transformation of empathy fatigue. The course combines theory, case-based reflections, and practical frameworks, including the Global Assessment of Empathy Functioning (GAEF-II) model, to deepen your understanding and equip you with actionable skills.

Topics include the neuroscience and psychophysiology of stress and empathy, the ethical risks of clinician impairment, burnout vs. empathy fatigue, the seven domains of functioning affected by empathy fatigue, and empirically grounded prevention and wellness strategies. The course emphasizes the mind-body-spirit (M-B-S) approach and highlights actionable pathways to professional sustainability and personal wellness.

Key Takeaways:

• Deepen your self-assessment: Learn how to measure your current functioning across seven critical domains using the GAEF-II model.

• Restore professional presence and ethical clarity: Recognize how empathy fatigue impacts client care and how to mitigate its effects with intention and insight.

• Apply holistic strategies for resiliency: Gain practical tools in behavioral health, mindfulness, and M-B-S wellness for long-term sustainability.

Why This Course?

• Learn from the originator of empathy fatigue theory: Dr. Stebnicki developed the concept and continues to advance national training standards on this topic.

• Grounded in ethics and clinical practice: This course connects the science of fatigue with the real-world responsibility of ethical care.

• Practical, insightful, and empowering: Gain immediate tools and perspectives to protect your well-being and enhance client outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and evaluate the cognitive, behavioral, spiritual, process skills, emotional, physical, and occupational characteristics of the empathy fatigue experience using the Global Assessment of Empathy Functioning (GAEF-II) model.

• Explore the experience and impact of empathy fatigue as it relates to the professional’s ethical responsibility of maintaining optimal self-care while providing competent services during intense therapeutic interactions with clients’ experience of extraordinary stressful and traumatic events.

• Illustrate self-care strategies for the prevention, preparation, and reduction of the empathy fatigue experience cultivating wellness, behavioral health, mindfulness stress reduction, and other self-care approaches to increase empathy resiliency for optimal wellness.

Begin when you're ready—access this course immediately upon enrollment and start replenishing your empathy with strategies rooted in research, resilience, and real-world application.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Instruction consists of 3 hours of video instruction and a post-test.

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.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Mark A. Stebnicki, Ph.D., LCMHC, DCMHS, CRC, CMCC

Mark A. Stebnicki is professor emeritus and former coordinator of the Military and Trauma Counseling (MTC) Certificate Program (which he developed in 2015) in the Department of Addictions and Rehabilitation at East Carolina University. He also developed the national Clinical Military Counseling Certificate (CMCC) in 2016, a 12-hour CE program offered nationally through the Telehealth Certificate Institute. Dr. Stebnicki has been a counselor, educator, researcher, and practitioner with over 35 years of experience in the fields of rehabilitation and mental health counseling.

He has practiced and published in areas related to stress, traumatic stress, disaster mental health response, and the psychosocial aspects of chronic illness and disability. He has extensive experience working with active-duty military service members, veterans, veterans with disabilities, and military families. Dr. Stebnicki has published 11 professional books, over 40 journal articles, and book chapters and has provided over 120 national and regional presentations. He has served on many statewide and national professional counseling boards.

Find Dr. Stebnicki's 2024 publication: Transcending Empathy Fatigue (1st Edition)

Disclosure Statement: 

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

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 3 continuing education hours of credit.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists: 

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Addiction Professionals:

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists: 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 180 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

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

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