Overview

This material is intended for service providers whose lives have been affected by working with trauma victims, either in the immediate aftermath of the trauma, or in the weeks, months, or years after the traumatic event has occurred. Any service provider who works with trauma survivors will eventually experience the secondary impact of personal accounts of traumatic experiences. Repeated exposure to traumatic material increases professional vulnerability. The following information addresses the personal and professional impact of providing direct services to active duty members, dependents, and civilians who have experienced trauma, such as combat/war, violent crimes (e.g., sexual assault, child abuse, or domestic violence), natural disasters, and terrorist events.

Defining and Understanding Vicarious Trauma

To understand vicarious trauma, it is first important to know how trauma is defined in this context. Trauma refers to events which are out of the ordinary and which the individual perceives as life-threatening or a threat to self-preservation. Trauma can often have lasting physical or psychological effects. Vicarious trauma is best defined as the psychological, physical, and interpersonal consequences of being exposed to a client's traumatic material (McCann & Pearlman, 1990). In short, vicarious trauma is the effect of bearing witness to the emotional pain and the explicit details of another person's suffering, loss, and trauma.

Any helping professional, direct service provider, volunteer, or first responder can be affected by repeated, secondhand exposure to trauma or sometimes by a single incident of bearing witness to a traumatic event (e.g., the 9/11 terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon). Persons working in the helping professions are particularly vulnerable and are likely to be affected by vicarious trauma at some point in their career due to the increased sensitivity and empathic relationship with the client (patient) which is required in such professions. According to some of the leaders in this field, vicarious trauma is inevitable for those who provide direct services to trauma victims.