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This article explores the intersections of personal grief, secondary trauma and compassion fatigue within the teaching profession, drawing from my experience as a K–12 art teacher who returned to work shortly after a family loss. I use visual autoethnography and arts-based research to examine how trauma shaped my pedagogical presence and emotional capacity. Through mixed-media artworks, woodcut, painting and digital collage, artmaking became a site of inquiry and reflection, allowing emotions that resisted language to surface visually. Grounded in trauma-informed pedagogy, this research highlights the often-invisible emotional labour of teachers and repositions artmaking as a reflective method for sustaining well-being and professional growth. It contributes to discussions about teacher care, emotional resilience and the ethical possibilities of art-based reflection. Ultimately, this study offers both personal and pedagogical insights into how visual storytelling can serve as a tool for healing, meaning-making and humanity in emotionally demanding educational contexts.
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https://doi.org/10.1386/eta_00221_1 Published content will be available immediately after check-out or when it is released in case of a pre-order. Please make sure to be logged in to see all available purchase options.