How is compassion fatigue training different from a standard employee wellness program?

Compassion fatigue training addresses the specific occupational risk of caring for others in crisis, grief, or trauma-exposed roles, rather than general workplace wellness topics like nutrition or stress management. It focuses on vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and the emotional cost of sustained caregiving, giving organizations frameworks targeted to trauma-exposed workforces rather than broad wellness content.

What types of organizations book compassion fatigue speakers?

Organizations that book compassion fatigue speakers typically include healthcare systems, hospice and palliative care providers, first responder agencies, behavioral health organizations, social service agencies, and victim services organizations. These are workforces with regular, direct exposure to others' trauma, grief, or crisis.

What is secondhand trauma called?

Secondhand trauma is most commonly referred to as vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress. Both terms describe the emotional impact absorbed by helping professionals from repeated exposure to others' traumatic experiences, distinct from compassion fatigue, which describes the broader depletion that can result from sustained caregiving.

What are the 4 stages of compassion fatigue?

Compassion fatigue is commonly discussed in progressive stages, moving from initial enthusiasm and idealism, through growing awareness of emotional strain, into a stage of irritability or withdrawal, and finally into a stage of depletion or burnout if left unaddressed. Organizations that intervene earlier in this progression typically see better outcomes than those that wait until depletion sets in.

Is there a cost range for booking a compassion fatigue speaker?

Pricing for a compassion fatigue speaker or trainer typically depends on program format - a single keynote presentation is generally less costly than a multi-session training series or an ongoing engagement. Contact Griefwork Center, Inc. for a custom quote.

What credentials does a compassion fatigue speaker need?

Organizations generally look for a demonstrated track record of published work, national speaking experience, and specialized subject-matter depth in trauma, grief, or compassion fatigue when selecting a speaker or trainer.

Griefwork Center, Inc.: Grief, Trauma, and Compassion Fatigue Training and Keynote Speaking

Barbara is founder of Griefwork Center, Inc.

Griefwork Center, Inc. is a professional training and education organization founded and led by Barbara Rubel, an author, speaker, and trainer based in Kendall Park, New Jersey.

The organization specializes in compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, grief, and organizational resilience.

Griefwork Center delivers evidence-informed programs nationwide to healthcare systems, hospice and palliative care organizations, first responder agencies, behavioral health providers, social service organizations, and victim services organizations.

Rather than one-time motivational content, its work centers on practical frameworks that leaders and staff can apply directly to reduce the occupational impact of trauma exposure and strengthen workplace culture over time.

Why Organizations Trust Griefwork Center and Barbara Rubel

See why healthcare systems, first responder agencies, hospice organizations, and other helping professions across the country invite Barbara Rubel to educate, inspire, and equip their teams with practical strategies for building resilience and supporting workforce well-being.

organizations trust Griefwork Center's Barbara Rubel

Books published by Griefwork Center, Inc. and authored by Barbara Rubel

Published Author

Barbara Rubel is the author and co-author of numerous books on grief, loss, and compassion fatigue, most of which are published by Griefwork Center, Inc. Her work has helped professionals across the country better understand the emotional impact of caregiving and develop healthier ways to support themselves and others.

View Barbara's Books

What Griefwork Center, Inc. Offers

Griefwork Center provides training and speaking across eight areas: FABULOUS Transformation® Training, PALETTE OF GRIEF® Training, Compassion Fatigue Training, Vicarious Trauma Training, Suicide Postvention Training, Grief and Loss Training, conference presentations and workshops, and keynote speaking.

These are structured, clinically grounded programs built on decades of research into the occupational hazards facing healthcare workers, first responders, grief counselors, hospice staff, and social service professionals.

Multi-session training programs

are built for organizations that need sustained skill-building across teams rather than a single presentation.

Conference presentations and workshops

extend this subject matter to professional meetings and event-based audiences.

Keynote presentations

are designed for conferences, all-staff events, and leadership gatherings where an organization wants to introduce compassion fatigue and resilience concepts to a broad audience in a single sitting.

Books and educational resources

Barbara Rubel is also the author and co-author of multiple published books on grief, loss, and compassion fatigue, giving client organizations a resource library that can extend the impact of a training or keynote well beyond the day of the event.

Rave Reviews About the Programs

The FABULOUS TRANSFORMATION® Methodology

A structured approach to resilience that moves beyond coping toward growth and transformation.

Griefwork Center’s signature approach is the FABULOUS TRANSFORMATION® methodology, a named framework for moving individuals and teams from vicarious trauma exposure toward growth, resilience, and well-being.

The training curriculum is organized around specific components – including flexibility, attitude, boundaries, understanding, laughter, optimism, and unity – each addressed through applied, organizational content rather than abstract self-care advice.

This structured approach is also extended into a dedicated program area: implementing and sustaining a vicarious trauma-responsive peer support program, aimed at organizations that want a durable internal support structure rather than a one-time intervention.

Organizational Speaking and Training Programs

Griefwork Center, Inc. offers two signature speaking and training programs designed to strengthen professional well-being and help professionals better support those experiencing trauma, grief, and loss.

FABULOUS TRANSFORMATION®

From Vicarious Trauma to Growth, Resilience, and Well-Being

This flagship training walks participants through the complete FABULOUS Transformation® framework, building from awareness of compassion fatigue mechanisms to practical application of resilience drivers. Participants learn to identify their own compassion fatigue signatures, understand the neurological and emotional mechanisms behind secondary traumatic stress, and develop personalized resilience plans using the FABULOUS TRANSFORMATION® framework.

Outcomes organizations can expect from this program include increased staff awareness of compassion fatigue warning signs, improved self-care practices and boundary-setting skills, stronger team cohesion around shared challenges, and practical tools for managing the emotional weight of caregiving work.

Learning Objectives

Describe the impact of compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and moral injury.
Describe how exposure to others’ trauma can impact emotional, mental, and physical well-being.
Apply evidence-informed strategies to mitigate the effects of vicarious trauma and enhance emotional well-being.
Distinguish between the effects of vicarious trauma and the positive outcomes of vicarious resilience and vicarious post-traumatic growth.
Develop a personalized self-care plan that integrates tools for managing emotional exposure, fostering resilience, and encouraging personal growth.

PALETTE OF GRIEF®

Practical Tools for Understanding and Supporting Grief

Palette of Grief® is a practical, reflective framework that helps professionals better understand the many dimensions of grief without relying solely on the details of a person’s loss narrative. It gives clinicians and other professional helpers a structured way to recognize and explore emotional, cognitive, physical, behavioral, and spiritual responses to loss.

The program can address grief following many types of loss, with particular attention to traumatic grief and suicide loss. Participants gain practical tools, language, and greater confidence for supporting grieving clients while remaining attentive to the emotional impact this work can have on the professionals providing care.

Learning Objectives

Recognize the multidimensional nature of grief, including emotional, cognitive, physical, behavioral, and spiritual responses.
Use the Palette of Grief® framework to explore a client’s grief experience without requiring the full loss narrative.
Identify considerations unique to traumatic grief and suicide loss, including stigma and complex responses to loss.
Apply practical tools and language to support clients experiencing grief and traumatic loss.
Strengthen awareness of professional well-being while working with clients affected by grief and loss.

Request a Program for Your Team

Who Griefwork Center, Inc. Serves

Griefwork Center works with organizations whose workforces face elevated occupational exposure to trauma, grief, and emotional strain. Any role requiring sustained empathic engagement with human suffering carries an ongoing risk of secondary traumatic stress.

Our evidence-informed training provides practical strategies that strengthen workforce resilience, reduce the occupational impact of compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress, and help organizations build healthier, more sustainable workplace cultures. Rather than offering temporary inspiration or generic self-care advice, these programs deliver measurable, lasting strategies that professionals and leaders can apply long after the training ends.

Primary audiences include:

Hospitals and health systems – physicians, nursing staff, physician assistants, patient care technicians, social workers, and chaplains. These professionals face compounding trauma exposure that standard employee assistance programs are not equipped to address.
Hospice and palliative care organizations – supervisors, managers, HR professionals, clinical directors, and end-of-life care providers who absorb grief and loss as a daily professional experience
First responder agencies – law enforcement officers, emergency medical services, fire departments, paramedics, EMTs and emergency communications (911 dispatch) whose occupational reality involves repeated exposure to traumatic events, mass casualty incidents, and the cumulative weight of community crisis. Compassion fatigue in first responder populations is significantly under identified and undertreated
Community mental health and social service organizations – case managers, child protective services workers, homeless services staff, domestic violence advocates, and substance use counselors who navigate complex trauma in client populations while managing institutional resource constraints and systemic secondary stressors.
Pediatric and oncology care teams – specialty medical environments with disproportionately high secondary trauma exposure

Organizational leaders and supervisors – Managers who carry both their own compassion fatigue risk and the secondary obligation of supporting staff through theirs. Training leaders is often the highest-leverage intervention point for systemic change.

Organizations that book Barbara Rubel through Griefwork Center, Inc. receive a program customized to their professional context – not a templated speaker circuit talk recycled across industries.

Learn More About Barbara

Why Organizational Commitment Matters More Than Individual Coping

One of the most important shifts in compassion fatigue research over the past decade is the recognition that compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard, not a personal failure. It is a predictable consequence of prolonged exposure to the suffering and trauma of others—not a sign that someone lacks resilience or simply needs more self-care.

When organizations treat compassion fatigue as an individual responsibility, they unintentionally place the burden of an organizational risk on the shoulders of the people most affected by it. The result is ongoing emotional depletion, increased turnover, reduced job satisfaction, patient or client care errors, and diminished organizational effectiveness.

Organizations that recognize compassion fatigue as a workplace stress take a different approach. Rather than relying solely on individual coping strategies, they invest in systemic solutions that strengthen both employees and the organization as a whole, including:

Organization-wide training that equips all staff with the knowledge and skills to recognize and respond to compassion fatigue—not just those who self-identify as struggling.
Leadership education that enables supervisors to recognize early warning signs, normalize help-seeking, support healthy workplace practices, and model resilience.
Peer support systems that foster connection, mutual accountability, and shared responsibility for well-being.
Policies and workplace practices that reduce stigma around mental health support, encourage healthy workload management, and minimize cumulative trauma exposure.

These organizational strategies help create workplaces where professionals can continue performing high-empathy work while protecting their own well-being over the course of a long and meaningful career.

Griefwork Center’s training programs are designed specifically for organizations seeking a comprehensive, evidence-informed approach to preventing compassion fatigue and addressing vicarious trauma. By combining education, leadership development, and practical organizational strategies, her programs help build resilient teams and healthier workplace cultures—not simply more resilient individuals.

Why Organizations Choose Barbara Rubel

Organizations selecting a compassion fatigue speaker or trainer are typically evaluating depth of subject-matter expertise, applicability to their specific workforce, and whether the content translates into lasting organizational change rather than a one-time morale boost.

As an author, speaker, and nationally recognized trainer, Barbara combines research, practical strategies, and real-world experience to create programs that are informative, engaging, and immediately applicable.

Barbara Rubel’s published body of work on grief, loss, and compassion fatigue, combined with the structured FABULOUS TRANSFORMATION® framework, positions Griefwork Center as a resource for organizations seeking sustained programming rather than a single inspirational talk.

Bring Evidence-Informed Resilience Training to Your Organization

Whether you’re planning a conference keynote, staff education program, or organization-wide initiative, Griefwork Center can tailor a program to meet your team’s needs.

Organizations evaluating a speaker or trainer for this subject area are encouraged to request direct information on program structure, format options, and pricing for their specific workforce size and needs.

To inquire about program availability, format customization, or scheduling, contact Griefwork Center, Inc. directly through GriefworkCenter.com.

*Griefwork Center’s training and speaking programs are educational and organizational-development resources focused on workplace resilience and compassion fatigue awareness. They are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment, clinical therapy, or crisis intervention services.*

Griefwork Center, Inc. | Compassion Fatigue Speaking, Training & Resilience