In this episode I interview Dr. Colleen Grunhaus.  She discusses her journey through burnout and how she moved through it. She discusses her research and how she discovered the differences between moral injury and moral distress. She shares how moral distress can appear when a Counselor loses a client to suicide. Chris shares her journey through a client suicide.  The emotional fallout for Counselor/Therapists when a client completes a suicide is discussed.  She shares more about her research on the impact on Counselors, what supports are provided for counselors and how do workplace response and support.  She found most agencies don’t have a policy for supporting Counselors for a client suicide and Counselors are on their own to process through it.  

  Dr. Grunhaus discusses other ways to help Counselors through this including policy development, time off or reduced work load, individual counseling and if possible a group debriefing. She recommends destigmatizing language of “completing suicide” instead of “committed suicide.”  She also discusses prevention strategies.