Date of Conferral

10-23-2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Jessica Millimen

Abstract

Mental health provider’s ongoing exposure to clients’ traumatic experiences can cause increased compassion fatigue. Due to negative implications on mental health professionals’ work and personal life experiences, researchers have increasingly studied burnout, compassion fatigue, and stress. The study included a qualitative design with a phenomenological approach using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to interview mental health providers across specialties and regulations to acquire understanding of professionals lived experiences of compassion within their personal lives, work lives, and spirituality. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of compassion fatigue in male mental health technician and how they use daily spirituality as coping mechanism. Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping (TTSC) served as the theoretical framework for this study. The research showed that that male mental health technicians experience compassion fatigue. The research also showed that male mental health technicians utilize their spirituality to reduce compassion fatigue. Data was collected via ten semi structured interviews and analyzed through open coding. Challenging experience, workload wellbeing, trauma stigma, spirituality awareness, overall mental and emotional toll, suffered relationships, adapting and coping, burnout risk, supportive employer, and stress level of employment were the ten main themes among male mental health technician’s experiences. Findings of this study provide insight for male mental health technicians and other mental health professionals to better support and improve future reports that will positively impact workplace wellbeing, incorporate staff trainings, and improve their quality of care.

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