Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Moving to Emptiness Technique in Reducing Counsellors' Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue (CF) is a type of caregiver burnout which is developed by those persons who interact with traumatized individuals. Psychological counsellors are at high risk of CF. Interventions for counsellors' CF from former research included mindfulness-based interventions, and group psychotherapy. Moving to emptiness technique (MET) is a native Chinese psychotherapy, targeting to eliminate negative physical and emotional symptoms. MET is effective for many mental illness and physical symptoms, including depression, agoraphobia, insomnia, back pain caused by ankylosing spondylitis. However, the effectiveness of MET in alleviating counsellors' CF has not been empirically studied. Thus, this study aims to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of the MET intervention on CF among psychological counsellors, and to explore the effectiveness of MET on additional outcomes including professional quality of life and counselling self-estimate.

Participants will be recruited using convenience sampling through online channels relevant to psychological counsellors, including social media, professional forums and WeChat groups. Participants will also be recruited through peer networks whereby researchers' colleagues will be invited to share the study information within their professional circles. Recruitment will be initiated by distributing an online study invitation containing a brief overview of the research and a link to the participant information sheet through Wenjuan Xing. Individuals who express interest will be directed to the main researcher from whom they will receive detailed study information, complete the initial eligibility screening, and provide informed consent electronically. Eligible participants will then be scheduled for an online interview to confirm inclusion and exclusion criteria. All recruitment, screening, and enrolment procedures will be conducted remotely to accommodate participants' availability and ensure accessibility for practitioners across locations.

This study is a four-week two-armed trial. One group will receive the MET therapy (intervention group) and the other group (waitlist control group) will have their usual care while being on a waitlist and will participate in MET therapy after the trial is over. After registration, participants need to fill out a personal information questionnaire and a pre-test questionnaire first. Then, they will be randomly assigned to the intervention group or control group. After 4 weeks, participants will need to take another post-test, and after another 4 week, they will fill out the tracking questionnaire. This study will take 2 months, with 4 weeks' intervention stage and 4 weeks' tracking effectiveness stage. Participants in the intervention group are required to participate in a 4-week online intervention using MET (once a week and 50 minutes for each session) and fill out personal information questionnaires and test questionnaires. The MET sessions will be conducted by trained MET professional counsellors. Participants in the waitlist control group also need to fill out personal information questionnaires and test questionnaires but will proceed with your usual care. After the trial is over, they will have an opportunity to receive the same 4-week online MET as the experimental group.