Just as traditional healers understood the need to replenish their own energy after giving to others, modern-day helpers like us also need to know that we may become wounded and require healing at some point.

The psychological, emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and occupational exhaustion that occurs as counselors’ wounds are continually revisited by their clients’ life stories of stress, traumatic stress, grief, loss, chronic illness, and disability often result in what Dr. Mark Stebnicki coined as “empathy fatigue” in 1998.

This is because there appears to be a “shadow side” of empathy during therapeutic relationships as professional helpers enter the deeply emotional experience of their client’s world of extraordinary stressful and traumatic events.

Thus, professional helpers are at risk of experiencing empathy fatigue.

Dr. Stebnicki, a pioneer in understanding empathy fatigue, has spent decades exploring, describing, evaluating, and treating the experience of this phenomenon ever since conception.

And now, he has curated a transformative course that utilizes guided self-exploration, self-assessment, and the development of intuitive capabilities to empower your mind, body, and spirit for personal and professional growth.

In this course, participants will

• engage in self-exploration of their personal and professional growth potential,
• develop self-care practices that are both practical for their life yet create deeper meaning for personal integration and insight,
• model self-care practices for their clients that form the foundation of the therapeutic relationship and earning the circle of trust, and
• explore multiple therapeutic resources that empower both you and your clients to live in optimal wellness.

With over 50 pages of insightful workbooks and expert guidance from Dr. Stebnicki, this course provides a roadmap to understanding and overcoming empathy fatigue and reclaiming your overall well-being.

Whether you're a seasoned clinician or just starting your career, this course will equip you with the tools you need to help you reclaim your energy, passion, and resilience.

Enroll in this course today and embark on a journey of personal and professional transformation.

This course provides 3+ hours of video training, a post-test, an evaluation and a workbook.

This course was recorded June 9, 2023.

Upon completion of this training professionals will be able to do the following:

• 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.

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

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

Credit Hours: CEs provided with this course include 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 this course would be accepted by your licensing board.

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 programing.

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 activity 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.

To receive your certificate of completion indicating CEs, you must complete the course in its entirety.

Online courses are completed by registering, logging in, navigating to your course using the menu (My Courses – the Course Title), completing all of the modules, completing and passing the post-test, and completing the course evaluation.

Live Webinar courses are completed by registering, logging in to this website, navigating to your course using the menu (My Courses – the Course Title), attending the full course via webinar, submitting your attendance, and completing the post-test and course evaluation online.

Psychologists and other professionals seeking CE credit through our approval with the American Psychological Association are asked, but not required, to complete the course evaluation before obtaining their certificate of completion, however passing a post-test for online self-study courses, and submitting one's attendance for live on-site and live webinars is required.

You can receive your certificate of completion by logging onto this website, navigating to the course using the menu (My Courses – the Course Title), scroll to the bottom of your course, and click on your certificate to either download it or print it.

Directions for completing a course can be found by clicking here.

Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities

Click here to view our Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.

Cancellation Policy

Refunds are offered within the first 30 days for courses which have not been completed.  There is a 10% service fee for refunds.

Grievance Policy

Click here to view our Grievance Policy.

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

Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.  The course may include required reading.

This program was recorded on June 9, 2023

You have six months to access online courses from the time of purchase.