Qualitative Analysis of Emotion Schemes Theory of Compassion Satisfaction in Emotion - Focused Therapy

There is little to no research focused on the qualitative understanding of compassion satisfaction among helping professionals, despite the demanding nature of the profession. Our aim was to examine how helping professionals experience compassion satisfaction through the lens of emotion scheme theory applied in emotion-focused therapy. Eight helping professionals were randomly selected from the pool of 29 participants representing a convenience sample, with the age range from 20 to 44 years. Data were collected via online in-depth interviews with open-ended questions concerning emotion scheme of their intense experience of compassion satisfaction. To analyze the data, phenomenology and consensual qualitative analysis was performed with three members of the core team and one auditor. The results described the experiences of compassion satisfaction in five components of emotion scheme: perceptual-situational, physical and expressive elements, symbolic-conceptual elements, motivational-behavioral elements, and experienced emotion. Helping professionals further emphasized the importance of taking time for self-care following positive outcomes or successes in their field. These findings provide a deeper understanding of helping professionals´ experiences of compassion satisfaction in emotion-focused therapy and nunaces between components. Gaining a better understanding of emotions related to compassion satisfaction and learning to savour the positive emotions it fosters could further enhance their well-being.