Impact of trauma work on social work clinicians: empirical findings.

Over the past two decades, social workers have treated trauma survivors in a variety of settings. Interest has increased in the effect of this work on clinicians. Vicarious traumatization is a concept used to understand the impact of trauma work on clinicians. This article describes a study of social work clinicians working with two types of trauma: (1) the human-induced trauma, sexual abuse, and (2) the naturally caused trauma, cancer. The effect on clinician's cognitive schemas and the confounding variables of personal history of abuse and years' experience are described. Clinicians who worked primarily with clients who were sexually abused reported more disruptions in cognitive schemas than clinicians who worked with clients who had cancer. Implications for social practice and education are described.

[1]  Y. Danieli.  Countertransference, trauma, and training. , 1994 .

[2]  K. Pope,et al.  National survey of psychologists' sexual and physical abuse history and their evaluation of training and competence in these areas. , 1992 .

[3]  G. Koocher.  Adjustment and coping strategies among the caretakers of cancer patients. , 1980, Social work in health care.

[4]  J. Briere,et al.  Differential adult symptomatology associated with three types of child abuse histories. , 1990, Child abuse & neglect.

[5]  C. Deutsch.  Self-reported sources of stress among psychotherapists. , 1984 .

[6]  J. Bowlby.  Attachment and loss: retrospect and prospect. , 1969, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[7]  Dc Washington.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Ed. , 1994 .

[8]  J. Yassen.  Preventing secondary traumatic stress disorder. , 1995 .

[9]  Charles R. Figley.  Compassion fatigue as secondary trau-matic stress disorder: An overview , 1995 .

[10]  M. Gorkin.  The Uses of Countertransference , 1977 .

[11]  P. Frazier,et al.  Vicarious Trauma: The Effects on Female Counselors of Working with Sexual Violence Survivors , 1995 .

[12]  C. Brock,et al.  Report on the social and emotional impact of cancer diagnosis on young adults , 1995 .

[13]  J. D. Guy,et al.  Mental health professionals versus non-mental-health professionals: Childhood trauma and adult functioning. , 1993 .

[14]  L. Pearlman,et al.  Vicarious traumatization: An empirical study of the effects of trauma work on trauma therapists. , 1995 .

[15]  D. Larson.  Self-Concealment: Implications for Stress and Empathy in Oncology Care , 1994 .

[16]  Judith Lewis Herman,et al.  Trauma and Recovery , 2015 .

[17]  L. Terr.  Family anxiety after traumatic events. , 1989, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[18]  R. Janoff-Bulman.  Assumptive Worlds and the Stress of Traumatic Events: Applications of the Schema Construct , 1989 .

[19]  V. Follette,et al.  Mental health and law enforcement professionals: Trauma history, psychological symptoms, and impact of providing services to child sexual abuse survivors , 1994 .

[20]  K. Davidson,et al.  Social work with dying and bereaved clients: helping the workers. , 1995, Social work in health care.