Society of Vicarious Trauma: Let’s Look for Ways to Overcome It

Society of Vicarious Trauma: Let’s Look for Ways to Overcome It December 2022

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Author: The Women‘s Information Consultative Center. Anastasiya Nenka, Director. Olena Suslova, Founder wicc.net.ua Project coordinator: ©Nacionalinė nevyriausybinių vystomojo bendradarbiavimo organizacijų platforma / Lithuanian NGDO Platform Contact: Justina Kaluinaitė, justina@vbplatforma.org Cover photo: Gerhard Reus / Unsplash.com

This publication is part of the project VBirNVO3 funded by the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour.

The publication and its contents are the author‘s sole responsibility and do not necessarily reflect the donor‘s views.

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Anyone who engages empathetically with survivors of torture or other traumatic incidents, as well as material relating to their trauma, is potentially affected by what is called “vicarious trauma”, or secondary traumatization. Vicarious trauma is an occupational challenge for people working and volunteering in the fields of services for survivors of violence, law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire services, and other allied professions, due to their continuous exposure to survivors of trauma and violence1.

Ukraine today is a society of vicarious trauma. Not a single family was spared one sort of trauma or another, including but not limited to violence or torture, loss of relatives, friends, neighbors, and misfortunes for the society as a whole. Judging from our experiences working with people in villages affected by the occupation, where there were cases of sexual violence related to the conflict, each person has been affected by vicarious trauma. For this reason among others, working with affected communities is an important element in overcoming the consequences of conflict-related sexual violence.

If you are currently working or have recently worked with survivors of torture or other such traumatic experiences, perhaps you could pay closer attention to your various reactions such as, for example, over-identification with the survivor, pessimism, cynicism, loss of hope, etc. Also, you could be trying to distance yourself from the situation or have difficulty in maintaining professional boundaries with the person who is suffering from trauma, which would result in over-extending yourself to them (trying to do more than is under your mandate as a helper).

While we admit that we will not be able to provide every single person with their own personal psychologist or psychiatrist, we also understand that we cannot ignore the emotional impact of war on our lives. Under such circumstances, peer-to-peer support groups can prove to be a useful form of help.

However, professional facilitation is required for effective group work. Facilitator’s tasks are: • • • •

to help group members feel safe, openly express their feelings, talk about their problems, share their experiences; to create an atmosphere in which members of the group feel mutual support; to help group members understand what unites them, as well as recognize inevitable differences and learn to overcome current conflicts; not to allow group members to deviate from the defined topic and break the rules; give everyone a chance to participate in the conversation.

Although this may come as a surprise, vicarious trauma can also have a positive effect and in this way be used to help counteract the negative effects of vicarious trauma. For example, people may draw inspiration from a survivor’s resilience that strengthens their own mental and emotional fortitude. Just as survivors can be transformed in positive ways by their trauma, so can be first responders and service providers. This is what is known as the concept of vicarious resilience and vicarious transformation. Compassionate satisfaction also reflects the sense of meaning that is gained from working in the fields of survivors’ services and first responders.

Such positive outcomes can motivate and, in turn, protect against the negative effects of trauma exposure2.

Things that do not kill us have the potential to teach us how to overcome obstacles and positively develop ourselves and our country. For Ukraine today, this is the principle of survival, and a road to recovery and prosperity.

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https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/vtt/what-is-vicarious-trauma Ibid.

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