Red Sistémica · Violence
Professional exhaustion (burnout), self-care and care of teams working on violence
Working with victims or perpetrators of violence wears professionals down with an intensity qualitatively different from that of other fields of intervention: it is a high-risk profession. Yet where construction workers would never climb onto scaffolding without a helmet and a harness, social workers operate in direct contact with violence without the precautions that ought to be taken – what the author calls protective factors.
Editor's note from Perspectivas Sistémicas
The text below is the excerpt published by the journal; the full text appeared in Perspectivas Sistémicas no. 84.
This paper was presented at the 3rd International Congress on Education for Conflict and Violence, for Coexistence and Peace, held from 14 to 16 August 2003 at the Catholic University of Santa Fe (Argentina), and is included in its proceedings. We thank Ruth Casabianca, director of the psychology programme at that university, for passing this material on to us for publication in Perspectivas Sistémicas. The paper draws on a chapter of the book Violencia en la familia. Programa de intervención en red: la experiencia de San Bernardo (2000), Arón, A. (ed.), Santiago, Editorial Galdoc.
“None of these workers would think of doing their job without a safety helmet, a safety harness or a fall-arrest net. Yet the social workers who work in direct contact with violence do so without taking the precautions that ought to be taken.”
Ana María Arón
Description of the problem
We will describe below some of the concepts we have developed in order to understand the problem of professional wear and tear, which takes on a qualitatively different intensity when the field of work concerns violence, whether one works with victims or with perpetrators. Work in these fields can be described as a high-risk profession, which implies greater exposure to the consequences described under the terms of professional wear and burnout; it is therefore important, in order to work in these fields, to take precautions, in the same way that workers in dangerous trades, such as working at height for example, take the necessary safety measures so as not to expose themselves needlessly to additional risks. None of these workers would think of doing their job without a safety helmet, a safety harness or a fall-arrest net. Yet the social workers who work in direct contact with violence do so without taking the precautions that ought to be taken, and which correspond to what we have called the protective factors in work on violence.
Working at height
A trade recognised as dangerous: helmet, harness, fall-arrest net. Nobody goes without them.
Working on violence
A high-risk profession too, but practised without any equivalent of these protections: the protective factors.
Professional wear and professional exhaustion or burnout: professionals at risk
Editor's note
The excerpt published by Red Sistémica ends here; the rest of this section and the remainder of the article appear in the full text published in Perspectivas Sistémicas no. 84.
Who is Ana María Arón
Ana María Arón is a professor at the School of Psychology and director of the Education for Non-Violence Programme at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. To contact the author: aaron@puc.cl.
This article is an English translation of “Desgaste profesional (Burnout), autocuidado y cuidado de los equipos que trabajan en temáticas de violencia”, published by Red Sistémica (first published in les actes du IIIe Congrès international d’éducation pour le conflit et la violence (Santa Fe, 2003), repris dans Perspectivas Sistémicas, n° 84). Translated and republished with the journal’s permission.
Read the original articleHow to cite this article
Arón, A. M. (2022). Professional exhaustion (burnout), self-care and care of teams working on violence (Complexe Systémique, Trans.). Complexe Systémique. https://app.complexe-systemique.com/en_GB/articles/professional-exhaustion-burnout-self-care-and-care-of-teams-working-on-violence (Original work published in 2003 in les actes du IIIe Congrès international d’éducation pour le conflit et la violence (Santa Fe, 2003), repris dans Perspectivas Sistémicas, n° 84; republished in 2022 by Red Sistémica, https://redsistemica.ar/2022/07/19/desgaste-profesional-burnout-autocuidado-y-cuidado-de-los-equipos-que-trabajan-en-tematicas-de-violencia/)
To go further
- Burnout: beyond exhaustionWhat burnout does to the professional, and how to read it systemically.
- Supervision in systemic therapyOne of the most solid protective factors for exposed teams.
- Clinical work with family violence. Interview with Silvia MestermanHow a team organises itself to hold up in the face of violence in families.
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