What is it?

Mental health charity Mind defines Vicarious Trauma as: ‘… exposure to someone else’s trauma. It can have a significant mental health impact and, if not mitigated against or treated effectively, can be a pathway to post-traumatic stress disorder.’

 

Anyone can experience Vicarious Trauma in the Workplace, but certain professions will be more at risk. These might include:

• School support staff;
• Teachers;
• HR professionals;
• Healthcare, including physiotherapists & counsellors;
• Retail staff;
• Beauty and wellness industry professionals.

Sometimes referred to as Second-hand Trauma, vicarious trauma presents itself when people are not trained to take the weight of what their clients share with them start to exhibit signs of burnout.

Who experiences Vicarious Trauma in the Workplace?

It is professionals in these roles who are more likely to hear the stories of their clients, parents & pupils that affect them deeply and could start to have an impact on their daily lives.

Picture the scene: a school administrator receives a call to let them know that one of the parents at the school has passed away during the night. As the caller speaks, they reveal that the parent is suspected to have taken their own life and even more concerning, it was one of the children who found the body and raised the alarm. The person taking the call is understandably shocked and upset. The story may have triggered past trauma. They take the message and pass it on to the Head Teacher, who takes over, and the administrator hears nothing more.

There is no support in place for the administrator who has received this news. They can’t talk about it outside of work due to confidentiality and they are forgotten within the school environment as Senior Leadership takes over.

Similarly, let’s think about the beauty therapist who sees the same client fortnightly for a regular treatment. The client tells the therapist, over a number of months, about their mother, who has been diagnosed with cancer. The therapist lives through all the treatment, the worry, the heartache and the every part of the deep emotional journey that the client and their family experience.

The therapist does this willingly, and might even experience similar stories from several clients through their average working week. They are kind and supportive. They listen and show compassion where they can.

But this emotional weight sits somewhere in the body and over time, the school administrator and the beauty therapist start to notice small changes in behaviour. They might come to work feeling a bit more anxious, the administrator might avoid answering the phone, they might find themselves lacking focus or dreading seeing certain faces where before they didn’t mind. They might be sleeping more or sleeping less; they might even be reaching for a bottle of wine earlier, more often or drink more frequently.

These (and more) are all early signs of vicarious trauma, leading to burnout.

What can be done?

The first thing is to recognise what is happening. Are there particular situations or people who you are starting to dread or feel particularly anxious about? Are you noticing a colleague who is behaving differently or doesn’t seem able to cope?

Anyone who is faced with seeing or hearing the traumatic experiences of others is at risk.

Remember, we all experience things differently according to our own previous experiences – so we might be triggered more easily if we’ve experienced something similar that takes us back to that place.

We can also start thinking about how to put boundaries in place to protect anyone who might be at risk. Do we limit the time we are exposed to the trauma? Can we change the environment? Can we find a way to share the load so that it’s not always the same person talking to the client/patient/parent/child?

Grounding techniques can be another way to transport us away from the situation and back to the here and now. Is it possible to look out of the window to connect with the outside world during difficult conversations? Can we slowly count things we can see or hear? Touching something nearby can ground us, even if it is our own clothing, or a chair arm; and controlled breathing (or mindful breathing) can be helpful.

These can all help in the moment but if the effects have already started, self care is so important.

Emotional Check-Ins

Firstly, check in with yourself or encourage your colleague to check-in. How am I feeling? If I scale my anxiety/worry/depression/lack of motivation on a scale of 1-10, where would it be today? What it my body telling me I need today? Do I have a headache, back pain, a sensitive stomach – these are all indicators of emotional stress & trauma.

The most important thing is to find an outlet. Talking about what you’ve experienced in a kind, compassionate environment is key. This could be with a professional counsellor or therapist, or with a colleague or line manager. There are workplace helplines that might also be available for anyone to call for a one-off conversation. The key here is to be heard in a non-judgemental, empathic space where the thoughts and feelings of the sufferer are not diminished or questioned. Everyone’s experience is valid and remember, sometimes it is a build-up of events, not just one, that can lead to burn-out.

Self Care

Self-care can be as simple as integrating a walk after work, which can be enough to detach from the day and ‘shake it off’, while for others, sharing their feelings in a journal can be beneficial.

As trauma sits in the body, self-care that relaxes and focusses on the body can be most helpful. Yoga & meditation bring focus to the body, while connecting with nature brings our ancient senses closer to our natural body rhythms. Both yoga and nature go a long way to helping to regulate our nervous systems.

 

I’m an employer – what can I do to support my colleagues?

• Recognising and acknowledging the risks to your colleagues are most important.
• Carry out a workplace risk assessment that assesses what colleagues in various roles are exposed to, whether that’s face-to-face contact with service-users or written reports, social media or another way.
• Invest in a workshop that informs colleagues what Vicarious Trauma is and how to recognise what is happening and then follow through with recommendations. This might mean introducing supervision, short-term therapy or group therapy into the workplace.
• Check in with colleagues and regular one-to-ones incorporating active listening (empathy, compassion, reflection)
• Variety & changing routines can lessen the impact of repeated vicarious trauma
• Offering regular breaks throughout the working day/shift
• Validate what they are telling you. No one makes up how they are affected by what they have heard.
• Notice changes to your colleagues – are they less enthusiastic than they were, are they avoidant of certain situations, are they withdrawn when once they were sociable? These are all early signs of burn-out. Ask them, and if they say they’re okay, ask again.

 

Vicarious, or Second-Hand, Trauma is very real and it can affect anybody at any time. It is important to remember that no one’s problems or emotional load is greater and there is no hierarchy to trauma, post-traumatic stress or complex trauma; if we feel it, then we feel it.

There is help and support.

If you’d like to invest in a workshop on Vicarious Trauma in the Workplace or feel that you would benefit from individual counselling to cope with trauma, please get in touch: info@kellyworgan.co.uk

 

 

***You might wonder why I haven’t mentioned professions such as nurses, doctors, emergency services, armed forces and the police force. The difference is that these people in these professions are more prone to experiencing the events that cause them actual trauma, not vicarious trauma. They are also more likely to be equipped with the tools to cope with what they experience and if not, they may already have support in place. Trauma, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and Complex (C-) PTSD are serious, complicated conditions that are very different to Vicarious Trauma.*****