Vicarious Trauma and Burnout Among Mental Health Professionals in Greece: The Role of Core Self-Evaluations, Self-Compassion, and Occupational Factors

Mental health professionals are often confronted with clients’ traumatic narratives, which may lead to increased levels of vicarious trauma and burnout, especially when work-related risk factors are present. This study aims to investigate the relationship between vicarious trauma and burnout among mental health professionals in Greece while taking into account work-related and intrapersonal factors using a sample of 266 mental health professionals, who completed the Core Self-Evaluations Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, Vicarious Trauma Scale, and Counselor Burnout Inventory, and provided information about work-related variables, such as caseload, clinical supervision, clinical training, and therapeutic experience. The findings showed that Greek mental health professionals’ burnout positively associated with vicarious trauma and caseload, while negatively associated with intrapersonal factors and work-related factors, namely, years of clinical supervision, clinical training and therapeutic experience. Vicarious trauma negatively correlated with core self-evaluations, self-compassion, and clinical experience. Finally, low core self-evaluations and self-compassion were found to explain greater burnout levels together with higher vicarious trauma and work overload per week, while core self-evaluations were the only variable that moderated the relationship between vicarious trauma and burnout of Greek mental health professionals. These findings indicate that in order to address the interplay between vicarious trauma and burnout, targeted interventions that focus on personal attributes, coping strategies, and systemic organizational support are needed.