Transcending Empathy Fatigue by Cultivating Empathy Resiliency
Enroll in the Reading-Based Online Self-Study and complete the training on your own schedule.
12 CE hours available for behavioral health clinicians completing the Online Self-Study.
When empathy becomes exhaustion, even the most dedicated clinicians risk losing their ability to connect, care, and heal. This course offers a lifeline—strategies and insights to help behavioral health professionals overcome the wear of relentless exposure to clients’ pain and trauma.
Today’s clinicians are serving in the wake of a collective trauma that spans pandemics, systemic inequities, and global unrest. You’re not alone in feeling drained. This course provides practical, research-informed guidance to help you shift from empathy fatigue to empathy resiliency so you can keep showing up for your clients—and for yourself.
Start building empathy resiliency—only $30 for full program access
This 12-hour self-study text-based course is guided by the writings of Dr. Mark A. Stebnicki, the developer of the nationally recognized Clinical Military Counseling Certificate.
Dr. Stebnicki coined the term “empathy fatigue” in 1998 and has spent decades training professionals in how to manage stress and trauma in the helping professions. Together, they bring academic rigor and lived expertise to equip you with transformational self-care strategies and actionable tools.
Through a structured reading of the Empathy Resiliency Workbook and completion of a post-test, you’ll be guided on a journey of self-assessment, insight, and change. The course is designed to be self-paced, immersive, and deeply reflective—integrating the theoretical, ethical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of wellness.
Topics covered include the neuroscience of empathy and compassion, stress physiology and its impact on clinicians, recognizing and assessing empathy fatigue using validated instruments, culturally responsive practices for building client rapport, and holistic self-care interventions rooted in mind-body-spirit integration. You'll also explore the ethical implications of impairment, the supervisor's role in burnout prevention, and the resilience factors that sustain long-term professional effectiveness.
Instructor
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.
Key Takeaways:
- Master self-awareness and resiliency practices: Learn how to identify your own warning signs of empathy fatigue and establish a personalized plan for restoration and professional sustainability.
- Transform the therapeutic relationship: Strengthen rapport-building skills and foster empathic alliances that protect both client and clinician from burnout.
- Lead by example in clinical settings: Integrate wellness, ethics, and supervision strategies into your practice and modeling of care.
Why This Course?
- Groundbreaking content from the source: Dr. Stebnicki coined the term “empathy fatigue” and developed the foundational assessment tools now used in clinical supervision and CE training nationwide.
- Relevance to today’s realities: This course speaks directly to the ongoing collective trauma and systemic pressures faced by today’s behavioral health workforce.
- Holistic and practical approach: Unlike many burnout trainings, this course equips you with mind-body-spirit tools, assessments, and reflection activities that are directly applicable to your life and work.
Learning Objectives:
- Assess your personal and professional growth potential through self-exploration.
- Implement self-care and wellness practices that are both practical for your life and create deeper meaning for personal integration and insight.
- Demonstrate self-care practices for the people you serve by cultivating a therapeutic relationship and earning the circle of trust.
- Identify multiple therapeutic resources that empower both you and the individuals you serve for optimal wellness.
- Identify core elements of the person-centered relationship that both hinder and support rapport building, facilitating empathic responses, and earning the circle of trust for cultivating an optimal therapeutic alliance.
- Appraise salient features in the functional and psychometric assessment of empathy fatigue as it relates to phases of extraordinarily stressful and traumatic events that hinder the professional’s optimal functioning as a competent and ethical professional.
- Analyze the experience and impact of empathy fatigue as it relates to the professional’s ethical responsibility for providing competent services during intense therapeutic interactions with clients or patients' stressful and traumatic experiences.
- Illustrate approaches and provide guidelines for clinical supervisors in the supervisor-supervisee relationship as it relates to recognizing and addressing issues concerning empathy fatigue.
- Recognize self-care and wellness approaches that integrate the mind, body, and spirit to decrease the experience of empathy fatigue while increasing empathy resiliency.
Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, on the edge of burnout, or simply seeking deeper purpose in your work, this course meets you where you are. Let this be your turning point toward renewed empathy, resilience, and sustainable professional excellence.
Take the next step in supporting both your clients and yourself—access the course and begin exploring the workbook today.
Payment Options are listed at checkout and the book discount is provided upon course enrollment
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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: Directions for completing a course can be found by clicking here.
Testimonials
Bridgette Nalumu
Public health consultant, Green and Purple Consultancy Network
Lora Verley
Clinical Therapist, Bayless Integrated Healthcare
Jackie Tanna
Therapist, Region One Mental Health
Jackie Bell-Russell
Therapeutic Behavioral Strategist, Rialto Unified School District