Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Filipino School Counselors

School counselors perform various essential roles in educational institutions. The scope of their duties and their evolving roles demonstrate that they not only provide guidance to students but also perform multiple administrative and operational tasks. This research investigated the experience of compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among school counselors in Bulacan, Region III, Philippines. Following an explanatory sequential research strategy, this study started with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, followed by interviews and focus group discussions to explain and expand on the first-phase quantitative results. During the quantitative phase, it was revealed that school counselors experience moderate burnout and high secondary traumatic stress. There is a significant difference in the burnout of school counselors when grouped by professional status and counselor-student ratio. The school counselors exhibited a significant difference in secondary traumatic stress based on their employment in private vs. public educational institutions. In the qualitative phase, it was discovered that the high traumatic stress of the counselors was caused by first-hand encounters with traumatic events (primary exposure) and witnessing the sufferings of other people (secondary exposure).