Donna Wampole, DSW, LCSW

A doctoral graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Wampole is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Her clinical social work career focused on working with individuals with trauma and dual diagnosis needs within the framework of both individual and group therapies, and with an emphasis on informed and standard Dialectical Behavior Therapy, with its focus on mindfulness, compassion, and addressing the needs for dialectical approaches to communication, relationships, and emotional regulation. Her dissertation research focused on the experience of burnout in inpatient-employed psychiatric nurses and the use of mindfulness as a mitigating practice against burnout, as well as trauma-informed care in nursing with the addition of mindfulness education for nursing well-being and improved patient outcomes.

Her ongoing areas of focus continue in the realm of burnout, self-compassion and empathic distress and means for social workers, students, and other human service professionals to find balance and wellbeing with mindfulness, compassion and effective self-care. These areas of concentration are also integrated into her curriculum as she present methods of foundational and advanced social work interventions including an emphasis on social work student self-care, self-compassion and well-being during their student journey and post-academic careers