Join me at the Caregiver Café

Being a caregiver is a high-stakes job. If you don’t give it everything you’ve got, you might lose the one you’re caring for. If you do give it everything you’ve got, you might lose yourself. The statistics prove that.

Allison Wyman and I talked about the solutions to that recently in her podcast, The Cozy Caregiver Café. Listen at that link or right here:

Jut the highlights

If you don’t have an hour to listen to the whole thing, here are some of the most meaningful parts, in my opinion:

• 12:35 – 14:47
  Having compassion fatigue generates its own feelings of shame and inadequacy, which amplify the inability to cope with it.
• 16:25 – 19:30
  When you’re in the middle of burnout, you feel helpless. But you absolutely have tools you can turn to that will help you cope and climb out of it.
• 20:55 – 23:33
  Take care not to leap off the identity cliff. Caregiving can be so intense that you lose a sense of yourself.
• 25:20 – 27:06
  Journaling can be helpful, but if you aren’t monitoring yourself properly, it can actually turn harmful, as it did for me.
• 37:00 – 41:38
  The sun will explode. Shakespeare is dead. Nothing is permanent.

Not just a caregiver problem

Compassion fatigue isn’t just a caregiver problem. It’s a universally human emotion, felt by nearly everyone in a caring role. And nearly everyone is in a caring role at some point, whether by profession or by need.

This is why we published Relit: How to Rekindle Yourself in the Darkness of Compassion Fatigue. It’s designed to be a practical, relevant resource for people in roles where caring is both the greatest virtue and the most profound peril.

It’s why we do workshops on the topic for care workers in all kinds of professions, for nonprofits whose staff need incredible resilience, for companies that want their employees to avoid burnout, and even for other professional coaches.

Check out the book. Tell others about it. Give a copy as a gift to someone whose parents are aging, someone who works in a care-based role, or someone who may just need more tools of personal resilience. The wisdom, inspiration, and practical advice inside will truly help.

Connect with me

Schedule a consultation session now or drop me a line.

Identify your core values with this free worksheet. Many of my clients find it surprisingly eye-opening. Get it here.

Download my chapter from RELIT

RELIT: How to Rekindle Yourself in the Darkness of Compassion Fatigue gives practical, relevant, actionable advice on avoiding and overcoming compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout. As a professional coach, I have to pay close attention to self-regulation and my own personal resilience. My chapter explains the things I do to stay centered and stay focused so I can give every client my best, every time.
Download my chapter for free: Show up. Try hard. Be nice.
Or just go buy the whole book. It’s worth it.