| Abstract [eng] |
Legal psychologists are known to experience compassion fatigue and burnout, to which institutional demands and workload actively contribute. The emotional challenges faced by psychologists working in Lithuanian prisons are very narrowly researched, and there is no qualitative research on the subject at all. The aim of this study is to explore the emotional challenges experienced by Lithuanian prison psychologists and the role of the institutional environment in them. This qualitative study was based on semi-structured interviews with 10 Lithuanian prison psychologists (7 women and 3 men), with a mean age of 31,3 years and a mean length of service of 3,5 years. Reflexive thematic analysis based on Brown and Clark (2022) was used for data analysis. It was found that empathy and willingness to help at the beginning of the work turn into apathy, helplessness and loss of meaning in the work due to institutional reasons and inability to see change. Most of the emotional difficulties are caused by institutional demands, excessive workload and unmotivated clients. This study contributes to the understanding of the emotional challenges of prison psychologists and their causes. |
