Ink Talks: Processing Compassion Fatigue through Culturally Relevant Arts-Making

Abstract

This paper explores the power of the arts and the spiritual support of one’s own culture in helping an immigrant arts therapist process professional compassion fatigue. Through autoethnographic narrative and arts-based inquiry, I intend to dive into the emotional distress arising from this immigrant therapist’s experience of compassion fatigue in a creative way. In this cultural and arts-based research journey, I immerse in my personal/professional experience through the arts-making process as an immigrant arts therapist to explore expression, transformation, and enlightenment as ways of processing compassion fatigue. Through this insightful personal journey, I argue that the importance of self-disclosure and self-exploration through culturally relevant creativity might enhance the wellbeing of the immigrant therapist. In addition, this study attempts to discuss the topic of therapists’ compassion fatigue through a decolonizing lens and with Eastern philosophical perspectives.

Keywords

• culturally relevant
• arts-based inquiry
• immigrant therapist
• compassion fatigue