Empathetic Fatigue in Psychological Committees: Connotation, Impact and Intervention Strategies

College psychological committee members are an important force in the school’s mental health prevention and control system, but long-term engagement in empathy can easily lead to empathy fatigue. Empathy fatigue can result in physical and mental discomfort, cognitive bias, and reduced work efficiency among psychological committee members, thereby increasing their intent to leave and weakening the overall mental health education service capacity. By reviewing the influencing factors of empathy fatigue and analyzing its occurrence mechanism, we advocate for the implementation of trauma-informed courses and experiential teaching training to enhance the coping abilities of psychological committee members. Furthermore, we suggest helping psychological committee members enhance their internal resources for self-care and leverage external resources to gain social support, thereby reducing empathy fatigue. This entails integrating individual, school, and social resources for effective intervention, reducing empathy fatigue among psychological committee members, maintaining their mental health, and ensuring the sustainable development of psychological education.