Emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue among psychotherapists in selected districts of Northern Uganda
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
South African Journal of Psychology
Abstract
Globally, close to 50% of the professionals working with traumatised individuals have issues related
to compassion fatigue. In Uganda, although compassion fatigue is prevalent among psychotherapists,
there is limited evidence of relationship between emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue.
This study set out to fill this gap. Data were collected from a random sample of 207 psychotherapists
working in Northern Uganda, who completed Emotional Competency Inventory version-2.0 and
Professional Quality of Life version-5 questionnaires. Chi-square and Fischer’s exact tests were
used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that all the four elements of emotional intelligence
(social awareness, self-awareness, self-management, and social skills) were inversely related to
levels of compassion fatigue and were statistically significant at p < .0001. The study recommended
that organisations offering psychotherapy services could focus on building emotional intelligence of
their psychotherapists. Increasing emotional intelligence of psychotherapists is necessary to enable
them deal more effectively, with their feelings and thus directly decrease the level of compassion
fatigue thereby protecting their mental and physical health.
Description
Keywords
Compassion fatigue, Mmotional intelligence, Psychotherapists, Uganda
Citation
Kabunga, A., Anyolitho, M. K., & Betty, A. (2020). Emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue among psychotherapists in selected districts of Northern Uganda. South African Journal of Psychology, 008124631988917. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246319889174