ABSTRACT
The terms burn-out and “compassion fatigue” are used by Taggart and Hodgkins to accurately describe how many of us involved in education and care have felt at times. This chapter considers the power of emotions and how, for successful partnership working as well as successful interactions with children, we might find ways to make our emotions and emotional responses more visible. It encourages us to be curious and respectful about emotions, and explores what displays of emotions, expressed within those heightened moments, might actually be communicating underneath the tears or the raised voices. When some people become emotionally overwhelmed, instead of erupting they can burrow deep inside themselves in an attempt to disconnect from the emotion involved.
