What happens when we are exposed to somebody else’s trauma?
When we work with someone who has experienced trauma, we might experience some personal challenges after being exposed to their trauma. A lot of people working in complex settings develop refined coping and wellbeing strategies that support them to manage this exposure while being effective in the work. But, for all of us, there are risks of working in trauma-impacted settings and it is important to talk about that and normalise it to manage it openly.
You may hear the terms “compassion fatigue” “vicarious trauma” and “burnout” being used interchangeably, but the reality is, they each impact us differently. What they do have in common is that the first step in prevention is awareness. In this article, we’ll explore the differences between compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout and provide some ideas to safeguard yourself and your colleagues. This article by no means provides an exhaustive list of strategies, but I hope you find some that may work for you. If you have some ideas too, please feel free to share them with us!
How are we exposed to trauma at work?
When we are working in complex settings, we might be exposed to trauma in the following ways:
Directly witnessing an event
Receiving a disclosure
Responding to dysregulated behaviour
Being a first responder
Viewing disturbing content
Witnessing injustices
Being the victim of an event
Inability to change a situation
These experiences can be stressful and it is important to have appropriate supports and wellbeing strategies in place.
Trauma exposure may lead us to experience compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, or burnout, which impact us in different ways. If you or someone you care about is struggling, please ensure you also access professional support.
Compassion Fatigue
Compassion Fatigue is the physical and emotional toll of caring for others when we have not been able to refuel, re-energise, and care for the self.
We are naturally compassionate beings and it is not that we have “run out of compassion”, it’s more likely that we’ve neglected ourselves.
Gabor Mate explains it further in this article, “Helper Syndrome”, where he explains that we often approach our work by trying to fix the unfixable or manage the unmanageable and then take it out on ourselves when we are unsuccessful. We might blame ourselves, engage in negative self-talk, or believe we should have done more (even when it was impossible). This is a harsh way to be with ourselves when really, we need to extend some compassion inwardly.
Some suggestions for preventing and responding to our compassion fatigue include:
Set professional boundaries. It can take work to set these and understand them, so it can be useful to engage a mentor or some of your trusted colleagues to work through these together.
Be intentional in how you end your work day, particularly if there has been an incident or disclosure. If you would like some ideas, I share some that worked for me in another article here.
Choose self-compassion exercises that work for you. Kristen Neff leads the way in Self-compassion work and very generously shares her research and a variety of practices on her website. Self-compassion practices can include meditation, journaling, intentional breaks, touch, and self-care activities.
Vicarious trauma
Vicarious trauma can be described as a shift in worldview after exposure to someone else’s trauma. It can lead us to experience similar reactions as those who directly experience the trauma.
You might start to notice yourself feeling triggered, fearful, and dysregulated when confronted by stimuli.
For example, if you support victims of family violence you might start to doubt that safe relationships exist. A friend might tell you about a new partner they’re dating and you instantly worry they are violent.
Some suggestions for preventing and responding to our vicarious trauma include:
Awareness! This means we need to be aware of how the work may impact us and how we’re experiencing it. Engage in self-observation and take notice of how you’re feeling in moments throughout the day. Something to take note of is your stress response.
Balance. We need to ensure we are staying engaged in our hobbies and interests that are not related to our work, allowing ourselves time to find joy, fun and connection.
Proactive wellbeing strategies. It’s not enough to put some “self-care “ strategies in place when we are already stressed. We will be much more effective in our work and our day-to-day functioning if we are being proactive about our wellbeing. This will look different for each of us, but could include: nurturing the body (nutrition, sleep and exercise), prioritising our important relationships and staying connected to meaning and purpose outside of our work (eg. through nature, spiritual practices, family connections, creativity, sporting teams etc).
If you are a leader in these spaces, providing your team with effective debriefs and access to professional support (where possible) will support your teams in managing their exposure to trauma.
Burnout
Burnout is the prolonged physical and psychological exhaustion that workers can experience from continuous exposure to emotional demands, structural oppression, and social injustice at work.
You might be passionate about the work you do but when you are facing staffing shortages, have a lack of support, or have an unmanageable caseload, you find yourself burning out. As we start to burn out, we may also find our perspective becoming more cynical.
Some suggestions for preventing and responding to our burnout include:
We must raise concerns with our leaders and work together to create systems that prevent burnout. This is not an easy task when we may be experiencing staffing shortages, but nothing changes if nothing changes.
Look at the problems with a solutions focus. We might find ourselves complaining about the leadership team and wishing they would do things differently. But, what would differently look like? If you search for solutions yourself and find some ideas, share these with your leaders. This supports you to shift your perspective and your leaders will likely be grateful for the new idea. If you search for solutions to the problems but cannot find any, then it may be helpful to remind yourself that everyone is doing the best they can in the current situation.
Identify and prioritise the work that needs to be done. it can be really useful to use to-do lists or ways to sort our tasks in order of priority. This will support us in recognising what is possible to achieve each day, what is urgent, and what can wait for a day or two.
Engage in proactive wellbeing strategies. As highlighted above!
Wellbeing support
Being trauma-informed is not just a way of showing up to support our clients, patients, or students, but it’s a way of understanding and protecting ourselves, too.
If you’d like to learn more about trauma-informed staff wellbeing, we’re here to help.
It all starts with a conversation.
Click here to request a call with Megan.
If you or someone you know is struggling while working in a trauma-impacted setting, please ensure you seek professional support. The recommendations in this article are by no means an exhaustive list of ways to care for ourselves and each other. What may work for some of us, will not come so naturally to others. Supporting our wellbeing is a practice, not a destination.
This article does touch on some of the risks and challenges in working with trauma-impacted people, but there are also so many benefits when we are supported appropriately to work in these settings.
