Understanding Vicarious Traumatization And Its Impacts

Herman (1992) categorizes the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder into three major categories: hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction. She describes hyperarousal as the “persistent expectation of danger,” intrusion as the “indelible imprint of the traumatic moment,” and constriction as the “numbing response of surrender” (Herman, 1992, p. 35).

Trauma is an individual’s visceral reaction to a horrible event, events such as early childhood traumas, accidents, sexual abuse, or community violence (apa.org, 2016). An individual may react with shock and denial in the aftermath. As time continues some reactions may comprise of mood swings, intrusive memories, difficulties maintaining relationships and can manifest into physical symptoms to include headache or upset stomach. There are individuals who experience difficulties functioning in their daily lives; these observable responses are a normal response to the trauma (apa.org, 2016).

Trauma comes from the Greek –  meaning wound, and meaning damage, harm, or impairment. Trauma affects every body. The traumatized person will experience dissociation, disbelief, isolation, and hopelessness. They will often wonder “Where is God and why has he left me?”

“American Psychiatric Association defines trauma as an event that represents a threat to life or personal integrity. Trauma can also be experienced when children are faced with a caregiver who acts erratically, emotional and /or physical neglect, and exploitation” (Maltby, L., & Hall, T. 2012. p. 304). Trauma comes in many different forms including: war, rape, kidnapping, abuse, sudden injury, and

What becomes vicarious trauma is when new experiences and information are unable to integrate into existing schemas. The experience of working with traumatic materials nullifies current schemas causing distress; the schemas must be adapted to absorb new information (Cohen & Collens, 2013; McCann & Pearlman, 1990). When a social workers experiences VT, these schemas have been altered negatively which causes distress and hyper-awareness to the traumatic materials which support the altered schemas (Cohen & Collens, 2013; McCann & Pearlman, 1990). Therefore, our beliefs of control and power we have over our environment are linked to how we experience and manage traumatic materials (Michalopoulos & Aparicip,

Its termed as an emotional aftermath because of major events such as war, rape, kidnapping, abuse or surviving a natural calamity that an individual directly experienced. Traumatic reactions are usually normal but in some instances, it can be severe whereby the individual experiences flashbacks, memory lapse, headaches or nausea (Levers, 2012). Medical professionals term

Another term for vicarious trauma is secondary traumatic stress or secondary victimization (American Counseling Association's Traumatology Interest Network, 2011). Some signs and symptoms of vicarious trauma include difficulty falling or staying asleep, losing sleep over your patients, feeling trapped by your work as a counselor, feelings of hopelessness associated with the counselor’s work or their clients, and diminished joy about things that once were enjoyed (American Counseling Association's Traumatology Interest Network, 2011). It is very important that the counselor/worker not confuse vicarious trauma with job burnout. Counselors/workers also need to be aware that vicarious trauma can have a negative impact on relationships with family and friends, in addition to emotional and physical health (American Counseling Association's Traumatology Interest Network,

Suffering has always been a part of life. While the definition of what constitutes as “suffering” or “trauma” may change with the times or cultures, the presence of such unpleasantries is a constant. What is not constant however, is how people react to such troubles in their lives. The way in which people react to trauma is an incredibly interesting phenomenon that varies greatly due to a number of variables including personality, severity of trauma, extent of trauma, and support to name but a few. After synthesizing various accounts and literature about trauma, it is possible to categorize the effect trauma has on the individual into two main categories: the positive and the negative reactions.

Trauma is defined as a broad category that includes child maltreatment as well as other events or circumstances that could have major negative impacts on a child’s development. Some cases of trauma could have been prevented if the family had money. Poverty is a huge evocate for why trauma happens to children. Also a family being in poverty after experiencing a traumatic event faces many more challenges than a well off family.

Robinson, Smith, and Segal (2012) defines emotional and psychological trauma as the result of stressful events that shatter a person’s sense of security, feeling helpless and vulnerable in a dangerous world. A person’s subjective emotional experience of the event is what determines if the event is traumatic. Some causes to emotional and psychological trauma is 1) happens unexpectedly, 2) unprepared, 3) powerless to prevent it, 4) happens repeatedly, 5) someone being intentionally cruel, and 6) happened in childhood. Some commonly overlooked causes of emotional and psychological trauma are 1) falls or sports injuries, 2) surgeries, 3) sudden death of someone close, 4) car accident, 5) break up of a significant relationship, 6) humiliating or deeply disappointing experience, and 7) a discovery of a life-threatening illness or disability (Robinson, Smith, & Segal, 2012). Some symptoms of emotional and psychological trauma is shock, anger, mood swings, guilt,

This uniqueness is dependent on the individuals’ personality, defence mechanisms used and inner resources. Based on the theoretical framework used by the researcher in this research, the effects of vicarious trauma are predictable (McCann & Pearlman, 2009). In response to a traumatic life event, the individual must integrate the event and its context and consequences into their existing beliefs about self and others. The intensity of the somatic, affective, and interpersonal components of the experience determine the availability of the event for cognitive processing.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines trauma as a very challenging or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional difficulties usually for a long time (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2015). From a medical perspective, trauma is described as severe damage to a person 's body. Trauma can be caused by multiple factors in a person life. Trauma could stem from a distressing experience of a physical or psychological nature. In recent years’ major natural disasters and acts of terrorism have become more prominent and devastating, creating long-lasting traumatic effects in individuals ' lives. Traumatic experiences can occur to anyone regardless of their culture, gender, age, social background or socio-economic status. Trauma can have a lasting negative impact on a person’s life. The lasting effects of trauma can have a negative effect on development as well as spirituality. Traumatic events can deeply affect individual’s psychosomatic and spiritual well-being, including changes in basic life expectations such as the notion of God, security in the world, and connotation of life.

If your child attends a theatre arts school, his teacher can set up a scenario where the children will be assigned roles to act out. The unstructured play is what your child does at home in a place convenient for his creativity. You might see dramatic play as mere pretensions, but experts say that it is an essential foundation in your child's mental development and learning process, and parents should encourage their children whenever they see their children playing in a dramatic way. Here are some of the reasons why dramatic

Theatre activities offer learners’ opportunities to skill, experience an art form in many dissimilar techniques. Whether taking in a play, mounting a production, grace with your presence a performance, or engaging in resourceful drama in classroom, it helps students to learn about themselves and their world, develop social skills, both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Educational growth is important, regardless of that individual’s future career. People who have a chance to learn about and through drama are

Despite the claim that Drama in Education ( DIE) as a pedagogy dimmed its popularity in the Western world since 1990 until 2016 (Gallagher, et al. , 2017), in the year of 2011, Morrow, et al. included it as one of the best practices in literacy instruction. Some of the teachers who had the experience of trying process drama in their classrooms found that the pedagogy improved students’ participations, pushed students to use their imaginations, performed deeper understanding of the topics being learned and made the students learn to have empathy ( Long, 1998). Do the voices from the classroom resemble to what researchers and theories have to say on process drama?