Dan, a 71-year-old retired pilot, was recuperating at home after experiencing an ischemic stroke. Depressed and living alone, he described feeling comforted by the health care team that visited his home during his rehabilitation. With tear-filled eyes, Dan shared, “Susan (his nurse) sat and listened to my stories and feelings like she deeply cared. I swear she healed me as much, if not more, than the medications.”

Dan’s experience reveals the power of empathy in healing. Research by Kitzmüller et al. (2019) backs it up by showing that empathic care and listening to people’s stories led to improved recovery and a greater sense of meaning and manageability. Yet, what happens when the healing power of empathy backfires and leads to burnout?

I have worked with a wide range of health care professionals—from hospitals and ER physicians to alternative healing practitioners and therapists—on their trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue. The reverberating effects of burnout impact one’s mental and physical health, families, colleagues, workplaces, and the greater society in need of their services. To say, “Toughen up, buttercup,” is really not the solution to broader systemic influences that seek more from people while giving less.........

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