Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, And Professional Burnout

For my final reflection paper, I would like to discuss vicarious trauma and its implications. This topic has stuck with me ever since we learned about it earlier in the semester. It is something that I fear will impact me during my work as a counselor. While I do not intend to deal exclusively with trauma patients, I cannot control who walks through my doors so it is in my best interest to understand ways to protect against vicarious trauma. My initial reaction to this topic was, “oh that does not bother me” or “I won’t have a problem with that,’ but as trauma seeped into my personal life it became apparent hat it does in fact bother me. Dealing with my cousins’ trauma this semester and trying my best to be helpful and supportive has proven to be more difficult then original thought.

This includes teaching staff to manage their work capacities, withhold from meeting all traumatised clients in the same day (distribute them over the week), regular breaks from work; and moreover, disassociating work from your own private life (Berger, & Quiros, 2014). It is pertinent to educate staff on vicarious trauma well before them working, which in turn will make staff more open to support if vicarious trauma arises (Berger, & Quiros,

Services provided include Individual Counseling for all ages, Personal Growth Counseling, Family Counseling, Group Counseling and Psychological Aspects of Grief. Issues addressed in counseling may include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, emotional impairments, family dynamics, behavioral problems and anger management. I work from a trauma-informed lens and believe that counseling is more effective and measurable when goals are outlined and mutually agreed upon. The goals and techniques of therapy will be based on each client individually according to their needs.

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

It is critical that clinicians be able to identify history of trauma in clients with psychotic disorders (Putts, 2014, p.83). Researchers reviewed the clients’ charts and found that in clients with at least one hospitalization related to psychiatric issues there was an 87.2% exposure to trauma identified by the researchers versus a 28% exposure to trauma identified by clinicians (Putts, 2014, p.83). The lack of recognition of exposure to trauma by clinicians has a significant impact in client’s experience during treatment because many of them lack the skills to bring up the topic for discussion during counseling, and many other clients are not even aware of the relationship between their traumatic experiences, and how those experiences have

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

The therapist will eventually start taking on the client’s trauma as his or her own. Symptoms for compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma are equivalent (Dass-Brailsford, 2007). This may take longer for the therapist to realize what is happening but it is a quicker recovery than burnout. Radey and Figley (2007) discuss in their article compassion satisfaction. Compassion satisfaction can happen when therapist put their resources to use and do not let the trauma of the their clients overcome them. The authors say three things will help them have compassion satisfaction and they are increasing positive affect, increasing resources to manage stress, and increasing self-care (Radey & Figley, 2007).

According to Wester, Trepal, and Myers (2009, p. 91), “well counselors are more likely to produce well clients.” Thus, the mental, physical, and emotional health of the counselors has the ability to affect their clients. ACA (2005) states that “Counselors act to avoid harming their clients”. Moreover, counselors have an ethical obligation to evaluate, address, and improve their wellness when necessary (Wolf, Thompson, Thompson, & Smith-Adcock, 2014). Research shows that higher organizational stress was associated with lower client participation in the treatment program (Landrum, Knight, & Flynn, 2012). In addition, the working alliance between the counselor and the client is diminished due to high stress and burnout (O’Sullivan, 2012). A counselor who experiences burnout may lack empathy, respect, positive feeling, therapeutic gridlock, and or boundary violations (Wallace, Lee, & Lee, 2010). Therefore, it is vital for counselors to remediate their impairments when they occur. Counselors have to be aware of the signs and symptoms related to their own mental or emotional problems (ACA, 2005). Likewise, counselors should build resiliency against burnout. Resiliency is built by a continuation of healthy decision making (Wester, Trepal, & Myers, 2009). Counselors should seek help or assistance when they observe warning signs of personal impairment, not just for themselves, but for the wellbeing of

When choosing to pursue a career in the health care field, most enter the workplace with the desire to help and provide care for patients who are critically ill (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Far too often, these health professionals who were once sympathetic and caring become victims of compassion fatigue (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). As a working health professional it is ones duty to compassionately care for the sick, wounded and traumatized patients, which involves being exposed daily to the patient’s pain, suffering and trauma (Coetzee & Klopper, 2010). Experiencing this type of trauma first hand is an un-recognized side effect of being a health care professional (Briscoe, 2014). It is easy to get wrapped up in patients, their

The first contrasting marker between NV and V clients is that NV are not necessarily seeking services and therefore these clients’ participation is often mandated through a referential basis (Bogo, 2006). The mandated nature of the therapy can cause NV clients to feel bewildered or coerced into the relationship, which ultimately affects the efficacy of the therapy (Ivanoff, Blythe & Tripodi, 1994; Smith, 2011; Turney, 2012 & Yatchmenoff, 2005). Second, depending on the context of the mandate the client may present with intrapersonal psychological underpinnings inhibiting their ability to wilfully participate in the interpersonal dynamics of the services offered by the worker (Briere, 1992 & Steel et al., 2004). To elaborate, consider working with a child that has been sexually abused by her caregivers but does not view the activities as abuse and is thereby in disarray or resistant to the introduction of any sort of therapy. It is difficult to convince any individual to accept aid if they do not believe it is warranted (Gil, 1988 and Paolucci, Genuis & Violato, 2001).

Many people come to social workers with a victim mentality, feeling helpless and without a future based on their past. They have been discouraged, beat down and made to feel broken. Being a victim of abuse, trauma, toxic relationships or a victim of assault are all unfortunate circumstances, but they can be overcome. It may seem like a challenge, but it is possible with assistance and God. As social workers we are to provide client’s who have experienced repeated trauma with support and resources to assist them in their journey to a hopeful life. Painful experiences seem to get the best of us at times, but focusing on the client’s ability to survive these horrific events can give the client just the push they need to see that they are a survivor. Helping the client to realize their own strengths and skills used to overcome their trauma, instead of focusing on the trauma itself, is a powerful way to help clients achieve a positive outcome. Kisthardt (1992) states “intervention will work best when there is “an orientation to, and appreciation of, the uniqueness, skills, interests, hopes, and desires of each consumer, rather than a categorical litany of deficits” (p. 60-61). Kaplan and Girard (1994) state “people will be motivated to change and grow when their strengths are

summary, a fair amount of research has been conducted on burnout and compassion fatigue. it is important to understand the individual factors that lead to the development of burnout and compassion fatigue. Another purpose is to understand whether or not the experience of STS is limited only to those who have direct contact with individuals who are experiencing trauma symptoms. Additionally, most literature that discusses coping with compassion fatigue focuses on self-care techniques rather than on an effective style of cognitive appraisal. Common assumptions are that effective coping styles for healthcare workers will generalize to the mental health field. The present study also aims to identify a coping profile indicating whether or not a

Counselors run the risk of being blinded by their own issues and inadvertently miss the warning signals of impending client crisis and missing valuable opportunities for timely responses (McAdams III & Keener, 2008). Unprepared counselors may overreact in a verbally escalating client crisis with excessive physical control which in then harms the client. Pre-crisis instruction in prevention and intervention methods needs to be accompanied by an emphasis on counselors becoming aware of areas in which their clinical objectivity during crisis response might be compromised by issues that they, not the client, bring to the crisis situation (McAdams III & Keener, 2008).

Licensed professional counselors have a unique occupation in that not only do they interact with their clients on a highly personal level, but they also momentarily share their client’s burdens, worries, and concerns. This vicarious aspect of counseling creates the possibility for a counselor to continue sharing the client’s troubles long after the session has ended. According to Norcross and Guy (2007), “The person of the psychotherapist is inextricably intertwined with treatment success” (p. 2) meaning that if we desire more positive outcomes than negative ones we must figuratively become one with our clients. Due to this fact, “self-care is not simply a personal matter but also an ethical necessity, a moral imperative” (p. 6). If we fail to leave work at work at the day’s end, then other facets of our lives are in jeopardy of becoming tainted.