International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, Vol. 16, No. 13-19, pp. ISSN 1522-4821 IJEMHHR • Vol. 16, No. 1 • 2014 13 INTRODUCTION Counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other allied professionals engage in helping roles that commonly intersect with trauma, resulting in the minimization of their own emotional responses. Such exposure, as in lengthy therapeutic relationships or acute experiences as irst responders can evoke stress for professionals (Regan, Burley, Hammer & Wright, 2006; Stanley, Feldman, Kaplan, 2010). Scholarly literature devoted to understanding the aggravating and mitigating factors in professional caregiver stress is noteworthy. A Psych-Net database search examining professional journal articles from 1980-2013 yielded 134 articles in which “professional helper stress” and “professional mental health provider stress” functioned as key terms. Additionally, 252 articles were identiied in which “professional social worker stress” was a key term; 374 articles were identiied in which “professional counselor stress” was a key term; 468 articles in which “professional psychologist stress” was a key term; and 593 articles in which “professional nurse stress” was a key term. Deinitions of Stress, Related Prevention Strategies and Protective Factors Burnout and occupational stress appears in a broad spectrum of vocations and can occur in practically any career. Best deined as job related stress, which presents with symptoms of exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness, burnout and occupational stress can occur in individuals not working with trauma related settings (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). For instance, a mental health professional may experience burnout while working with court-ordered clients in a similar manner that a computer programmer may experience burnout while attempting to balance the demands of numerous projects and deadlines. Vicarious traumatization is a term used in early research published by McCann and Pearlman (1990) in which “Vicarious traumatization can be understood as related both to the graphic and painful material, trauma clients often present and to the therapist's unique cognitive schemas or beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about self and others”. Vicarious traumatization has also been equated with secondary trauma, deined as encountering “distress while empathizing for another who has been affected by an event” (Figley, 1999, p. 54). Research advanced by Galek, Flannelly, Greene, and Kudler (2011) found the following key predictors in the occurrence of secondary trauma syndrome (STS) and burnout: (1) The number of years worked in the same employment position was positively associated with burnout but not STS; (2) STS, but not burnout, was positively associated with the number of hours spent per week counseling patients who had had a traumatic experience; and (3) social support was negatively related to burnout and STS. Only speciic sources of social support (supervisory support and family support), however, were negatively associated with burnout. Tabor (2011) departs from the equivalent use of vicarious trauma and secondary trauma indicating that they have been “incorrectly interchanged”. She distinguishes vicarious trauma (deining it as a way in which helping professionals are traumatized by hearing the victim’s account) from secondary trauma (deining it as witnesses being traumatized by seeing the victim’s trauma or triggered by a memory of past trauma). According to Tabor (2011) vicarious trauma mimics the symptoms of the primary victim, includes personal intrusion from another’s trauma (e.g., nightmares) and is produced only by working with victims of trauma. In vicarious trauma, unlike secondary trauma, the individual only hears about the events, but does not experience any part of the events. Secondary trauma can be initiated by multiple exposures to the effects of one trauma, as evidenced by a survivor from the 9/11 attacks becoming re-victimized when retelling her/his story during a memorial. Moreover, secondary trauma can be experienced by witnessing an impactful event (e.g., violent crime) (Figley, 1995; Halpern & Tramontin, 2007). Compassion fatigue is differentiated from burnout, secondary traumatization, and vicarious traumatization. In a visual diagram The Mother Teresa Effect: The Modulation of Spirituality in using The CISM Model with Mental Health Service Providers Mark Newmeyer, Benjamin Keyes, Sonji Gregory, Kamala Palmer, Daniel Buford, Priscilla Mondt and Benjamin Okai Regent University Abstract: Mental health service providers are at risk of experiencing compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious traumatization as a result of working in dificult contexts or when working with individuals who have experienced trauma. Numerous studies have examined the mitigating factors in professional caregivers’ stress and related prevention strategies thought to be associated with professional self-care. This retrospective study examined the impact of debrieing strategies referred to as Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and spirituality in 22 mental health service providers working in a stressful, cross-cultural context. Quantitative analysis of pre and post self-report instruments suggests that training and utilization of CISM techniques may be important in preventing future problems. To the surprise of the researchers, spirituality may not only serve as a protective factor in moderating compassion fatigue, but also increases compassion satisfaction among professional caregivers. Thus, the “Mother Teresa Effect”. Key words: Critical incident stress management, trauma, protective factors, ego-resiliency, compassion fatigue, spirituality, Mother Teresa effect Correspondence regarding this article should be directed to: mnewmeyer@regent.edu