…is an organizational energy problem. It develops when the demands of your work environment consistently exceed your resources. You are given too many students, too many responsibilities, too little planning time, too few supports, and too much pressure to perform under impossible conditions. Burnout makes you feel exhausted, cynical, and resentful toward the systems and structures that are failing you. The core experience of burnout is depletion. You have given everything you have, and there is nothing left.

…is a nervous system response to absorbing your students’ trauma. It occurs when you hear about, witness, or sit with the firsthand trauma experiences of the children in your care. Research defines it as “the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another” (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2023). STS can mimic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder: intrusive thoughts, nightmares, hypervigilance, emotional reactivity, and avoidance. The core experience of STS is activation. Your nervous system has absorbed trauma that does not belong to you, and it is responding as if you lived through it yourself.

…is an erosion of your capacity to care. It develops gradually as your emotional reserves are worn down by sustained exposure to suffering. With compassion fatigue, you may notice that you feel numb when a student tells you something that would have once broken your heart. You may catch yourself going through the motions of your job without feeling connected to the students in front of you. The core experience of compassion fatigue is disconnection. The part of you that chose this profession because you cared deeply has gone quiet.