Reflective and Supportive Supervision to
Prevent and Manage Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout of Employees

This workshop will provide an overview of the rates of secondary traumatic stress, burnout and moral injury among child welfare and other social service frontline workers. In order to address the root causes of these harmful outcomes of the job, participants will learn ways to build trust, psychological safety, a sense of support and resilience among staff through specific supervisory skills.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand deeply how secondary traumatic stress, burnout and moral injury of staff occur and the consequences for the worker, the workplace and for the families, youth and children being served
• Understand the disruptive impact these stressors have on staff
• Learn specific techniques to prevent STS and burnout and enhance both retention and compassion for the clients served

Topics Include:

• Origins and consequences of STS, burnout and moral injury
• Mechanisms through which these changes in staff operate
• How supervisors and managers can get to the root causes and ameliorate the impact of working in high stress, traumatized environments
• Techniques supervisors and managers can utilize to develop trust, psychological safety, feelings of inclusion, compassion and support