Wednesday, February 28, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Your Story
MATTERS
Audry Van Houweling, PMHNP
Columnist
Compassion
fatigue and
vicarious trauma
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER MCNAMEE
Emily Bourdage took first-place honors for her art.
Local girl wins contest
By Jodi Schneider McNamee
Correspondent
Central Oregon Eagle
Watch declared 12-year-old
Emily Bourdage, a sixth-
grade student at Black Butte
School in Camp Sherman,
first-place winner in her age
group for an original water-
color of a peregrine falcon.
Bourdage lives in Sisters
and has been enthusias-
tic about art since she
was 4 years old. She’s
also interested in music
and is in the guitar class
at Black Butte School.
This year was the
fourth annual Eagle Watch
Celebration Art Contest open
to all Deschutes, Jefferson
and Crook county students
(fourth through 12th grade).
All participants created origi-
nal artwork of bald or golden
eagles, hawks, falcons, vul-
tures, or owls.
Eagle Watch, a Culver tra-
dition since 1996, celebrated
a love for birds of prey last
weekend at Round Butte
Overlook Park and The Cove
Palisades State Park. The free
celebration honors eagles and
other raptors that live in the
Lake Billy Chinook area.
The event is hosted by the
Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department (OPRD),
Portland General Electric
(PGE), and Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
Event coordinator and
OPRD Park Ranger, Erin
Bennett, hatched the idea of
an art contest four years ear-
lier to involve younger folks.
“We had 65 art entries this
year,” Bennett said. “And
a couple of new categories
including a technical cat-
egory. We added Microsoft
PowerPoint for students
who felt they weren’t artistic
enough to paint or draw.”
The art contest is
Bennett’s favorite part of the
Eagle Watch Celebration.
Eagle Watch is a perfect
event for the entire family to
learn about birds of prey.
Camp Sherman residents
Kathy and Rod Bourdage,
Emily Bourdage’s grandpar-
ents, have volunteered for the
event for two years.
“Families tell us they look
forward to the event each
year,” Kathy Bourdage told
The Nugget. “It’s fun, educa-
tional and free.”
It seems empathy is in
high demand these days.
Helping professionals, heal-
ers, or simply those with
caring personalities may
feel overwhelmed and even
exhausted trying to meet
this demand. Having a car-
ing heart and a tendency to
put others ahead of ourselves
makes us especially vulner-
able to “compassion fatigue.”
Compassion fatigue, a
term coined by Dr. Charles
Figley, is a “state of ten-
sion and preoccupation with
the suffering of those being
helped to the degree that it
can create a secondary trau-
matic stress for the helper.”
Compassion fatigue occurs
hand in hand with vicari-
ous trauma, which is when
“the helper” is exposed to
the traumatic experience
of another and experiences
a personal transformation
resulting in a multitude of
possible symptoms including
anxiety, panic, sleep changes,
depression, hypervigilance,
and social isolation among
others.
Vicarious trauma and
compassion fatigue may lead
to feelings of being unsup-
ported and underappreciated.
We may also have a tendency
to roll up our sleeves and
become workaholics, in a
search to find control and dis-
tractibility when we may feel
powerless in other aspects of
our lives. We may also find
ourselves justifying mal-
adaptive coping mechanisms
because of the good and hard
work we do. It may also be
easy to blame our struggles
on circumstance and others,
but ultimately we need to
look within ourselves to find
answers and solutions.
Vicarious trauma and
compassion fatigue are wide-
spread these days. Among
those impacted are educa-
tors, at a loss for how to
comfort students fearful of
tragedy, or healthcare profes-
sionals struggling to provide
adequate care to desper-
ate patients, or parents try-
ing to nurture their children
in a world that can seem so
chaotic, or parents trying to
nurture their parents, or lead-
ers of faith trying to restore
hope in the hopeless, or
first-responders repeatedly
encountering the aftermath
of trauma, or the countless
unpaid volunteers and nur-
turers in our communities
working hard to uplift others
with often little recognition.
I have learned to be aware
of my own vulnerabilities to
vicarious trauma and com-
passion fatigue — and it has
not always been easy. I have
learned it is critical to have
what I call “non-negotiables”
or ways of coping that help
keep me grounded, present,
and emotionally resilient. I
have learned it is best not to
sacrifice these non-negotia-
bles and if I do, it is not only
a disservice to myself, but
takes away from my loved
ones, clients, and yes, ulti-
mately the communities that
I serve. I am not overstating
my importance, but have
simply grown an apprecia-
tion and awareness how my
energy and actions reverber-
ate to everyone I come in
contact with — and it is the
same for you.
It is easy to feel hyper-
vigilant about all the woes
and fears that may seem
so imminent, which makes
being vigilant about our own
well-being so much more
important.
Many of us believe that
prioritizing our own well-
being aligns with selfish-
ness. In my humble opinion,
self-care is a matter of self-
responsibility and has noth-
ing to do with being selfish.
Importantly, self-care and
self-responsibility may also
mean asking for help when
we feel at a loss. We can only
give what we have. It is ulti-
mately not sustainable to be
so focused on giving and not
restoring. So, in the midst
of widespread fear, taking
inventory of what we need
to keep ourselves grounded
and creating dialogue are
necessities.
It is easy to feel lost, on
edge, and powerless. Our
reality is our perception and
perception can change. So
let’s help ourselves and one
another see the light in the
darkness.
Take care everyone.
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