Description: Australian webinar,
panel discussion with workers from Blue Knot Foundation, with a
particular focus on working with survivors of institutional child sexual
abuse. The content is directed primarily at therapists working with
people who
have experienced childhood sexual abuse. It may have limited relevance
for workers who are not providing therapy/counselling.
Note that it takes 10 minutes to get to content related to VT. The first 10 minutes or so are introductions to the panel and administrative matters.
Themes:
Heavily focused on individual level impacts and strategies for self-care for therapists.
Individual warning signs and differences between VT, PTSD, burnout, and compassion fatigue.
Continuum of impacts of VT.
Emphasises that exposure to trauma material is the primary risk factor for developing VT, rather than personal attributes.
Highlights
that VT is more of a risk when there is only one worker supporting the
client, rather than a network/community of support.
Speakers
acknowledge that supportive management is a protective factor, but give
insufficient details of what this involves in practice.
At times the focus of the panelists drifts from VT and on to the therapeutic needs of people who have experienced sexual abuse.
Talking points from Q&A section:
There is no metric for an ideal number of 'trauma clients' in a caseload. This might vary from day to day. The point is that organisation management and leadership have a sound understanding of the impacts that trauma exposure can have on workers. It is a false equation that more client contacts/appointments equals better performance. Organisations have an ethical obligation to resist KPI driven funding arrangements that are ultimately harmful to clients.
One panelist comments that the ethical thing for workers
to do, if they are not feeling 'strong and grounded', is to acknowledge
this. If the worker is not in a state to regulate their own responses
to trauma material, it is not ethical for them to engage a client to
explore deeply traumatic material.
Body based (somatic) healing as a crucial component of managing vicarious trauma.
See 59:40 for question/discussion about when you as a worker feel 'trapped in a toxic workplace' but cannot leave because of finances.
See 1h05m50s for differences between 'immediate' trauma symptoms and cumulative VT.
What's the evidence base for this resource: Primarily draws on practice experience of the panelists.
Potential uses and limitations: Discussion starter for group supervision around VT impacts and self-care. Could also be a prompt for managers and supervisors to raise their own awareness of organisational responsibilities regarding vicarious trauma.
Where it comes from The Blue Knot Foundation is an Australian organisation that supports adults who have experienced childhood trauma.
This resource is tagged with the following. Clicking on a tag will direct you to all resources with that tag
Management and Supervision Staff Health and Wellness