Trauma-response helping professionals are often damaged by brutal events and may feel rage and grief over the intentional or unintentional harm done to others. As a result, it is not uncommon to find them traumatized by such experiences. Those who experience primary trauma, including trauma-response helping professionals working with clients, often have similar needs related to treatment. It is essential that you recognize what interventions are appropriate for primary trauma and those interventions appropriate for vicarious trauma.

For this Application, you explore the similarities and differences in symptoms between and among trauma-response helping professionals, survivors of sexual abuse, and natural disasters.

The assignment: (2–3 pages)

• Identify two similarities and two differences between the symptoms of survivors of sexual abuse and natural disasters, and trauma-response helping professionals experiencing vicarious trauma working with these populations.
• Using the current research, describe an evidence-based intervention used to treat trauma-response helping professionals experiencing vicarious trauma while working with survivors of sexual abuse and natural disasters.
• Explain the implications of your training and preparedness in counseling trauma-response helping professionals who work with survivors of sexual abuse and natural disasters. Be specific.
• Identify one insight you had or conclusion you drew based upon the comparison. Be specific.

Learning Resources

Readings

• Course Text: Compassion Fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized
  • Chapter 7, “Treating the “Heroic Treaters”
  • Chapter 8, “Treating Therapists with Vicarious Traumatization and Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorders
• Course Text: Treating compassion fatigue
  • Chapter 2, “The Trauma of Working with Traumatized Children”
• Article: Bartley, A. G. (2007). Confronting the realities of volunteering for a national disaster. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 29(1), 4 – 16.
• Article: Kress, V. E. W., Trippany, R. L., & Nolan, J. M. (2003). Responding to sexual assault victims: Considerations for college counselors. Journal of College Counseling, 6(2), 124–133.
• Article: Putnam, S. E. (2009). The monsters in my head: Posttraumatic stress disorder and the child survivor of sexual abuse. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87(1), 80–89.
• Article: VanDeusen, K., & Way, I. (2006). Vicarious trauma: An exploratory of the impact of providing sexual abuse treatment on clinicians’ trust and intimacy. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 15(1), 69–85.

Optional Resources

• Article: Perron, B., & Hiltz, B. (2006). Burnout and secondary trauma among forensic interviewers of abused children. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 23(2), 216–234.
• Article: Schauben, L., & Frazier, P. (1995). Vicarious Trauma: The effects of working with sexual violence survivors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(1), 49 – 64.