Surprise Castle
/Books/Psychology/Clinical & Mental Health/Mental Health
The Sum of Light: Preventing and Healing Trauma, Moral Injury, and Burnout in the Helping Professions

The Sum of Light: Preventing and Healing Trauma, Moral Injury, and Burnout in the Helping Professions - Paperback

by Lara Palay
$22.99
$29.95
-23%
Quantity
01

Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with

Offers & Perks

Earn 22 points with this purchase

Added to your rewards balance after checkout.

100 points welcome bonus

Create an account and start with extra points.

Join now
How rewards workSign in
Availability:In StockContributor:Lara PalayPublish date:3/31/2026Pages:288
Languages:EnglishPublisher:NaddISBN-13:9798994234501UPC:9798994234501Book Category:PsychologyBook Subcategory:Mental Health, Trauma PsychologySize:8.50 x 5.50 x 0.61 inchesWeight:0.336Product ID:SCG6GX7NJR

Burnout is not a personal failure. It is an occupational hazard.

In The Sum of Light, trauma therapist and educator Lara Palay explores the hidden costs of caring: empathetic distress, moral injury, and burnout. Drawing on decades of clinical experience, neuroscience, trauma theory, and lived experience, Palay speaks directly to those in the helping professions who encounter and endure trauma every day.

Through vivid stories, memorable metaphors, and practical wisdom, this book illuminates how trauma can affect helpers even when they are not the ones directly harmed-and how it can slowly erode meaning, hope, and connection if left unaddressed.

The Sum of Light offers ways forward: tools for emotional regulation, reconnection, ritual, and self-compassion that make sustained, humane work possible.

Written for clinicians, caregivers, educators, first responders, and anyone who serves on the front lines of human suffering, The Sum of Light affirms a simple truth:

Those who give care also deserve care.
And tending to that truth might be the most important work of all.

Languages:EnglishPublisher:NaddISBN-13:9798994234501UPC:9798994234501Book Category:PsychologyBook Subcategory:Mental Health, Trauma PsychologySize:8.50 x 5.50 x 0.61 inchesWeight:0.336Product ID:SCG6GX7NJR
Lara Palay, MSW, LISW-S, is a psychotherapist with nearly 30 years in private practice specializing in trauma and loss. A co-founder of Aldridge Palay Consulting, Ms. Palay started her career as an hourly worker in the mental health field and went on to be a supervisor and clinical director for multiple mental health agencies. In addition to clinical practice, she has taught social work graduate students for more than a decade. Ms. Palay served as the project manager for the Mental Illness and Developmental Disabilities Coordinating Center of Excellence for the state of Ohio, helping to advance trauma awareness in dual diagnosis. She is the author of The Way Through: Trauma Responsive Care for Intellectual and Developmental Disability Professionals. Ms. Palay lives with her husband and a random assortment of spoiled pets.
Publisher: Nadd

Contributor(s)

Lara Palay

Author

Lara Palay

Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Returns accepted within 30 days of purchase.