Date of Conferral

4-20-2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Olga Carranza

Abstract

Burnout among mental health professionals has been a long-standing phenomenon when working with trauma individuals resulting in increased job turnover rates and decreased quality of care for patients. The job demands- resourced model and constructivist self- development theory were used to guide this study. The purpose of this research study was to explore how mental health professionals working with the military veteran population experience burnout and secondary traumatic stress. A descriptive qualitative design was used with purposive and snowball sampling to attain 10 mental health professionals from various facilities serving military veterans. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and were analyzed using a thematic coding process, validation through member checking, and triangulation with findings in the literature. Emergent themes identified were (a) burnout serving military veterans, (b) secondary traumatic stress serving military veterans, (c) unhealthy coping strategies, (d) contributing factors, (e) protective factors, and (f) changes needed. Social change implications for this study could be to promote social change in facilitating the reduction of turnover rates among mental health professionals working with military veterans, encouraging effective communication between professionals and their administrators, and improving the quality of care to veterans. This research could enhance administration communication with mental health therapists, aiding in easing documentation timeline stress and improving therapeutic abilities through specific therapy training that addresses specific veteran issues and potential secondary trauma of the provider.

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