The BRAVE Blog: Reframing Vicarious Trauma

Ever find yourself inspired by a client's breakthrough, even when the weight of their stories feels overwhelming? For trauma therapists, this dual experience—where the emotional toll of engaging empathically with clients also pays back in unexpected resilience—is known as vicarious resilience.

Being a trauma therapists means we wear many hats, and we often try to keep them all nice, neat, and separated. This week, we have a Guest Blog post from Sarah Sanders, LMFT, and she shows us the power of showing up as an integrated self - trauma therapist side and all!

What if Vicarious Resilience could be your renewable source of self-care, the antithesis to weaponized self-care? It’s possible when you can recognize, install, and enhance Vicarious Resilience!

We both know there is a deeper reason you keep doing this work. For me, it's because I really do see people get better.

What’s your reason?

Supervision is a sacred space with trainees.

Of course, the main goal is to process cases and strengthen clinical skills, but supervision is so much more than reporting updates and being told what to do next. It is an opportunity for Vicarious Resilience.

If you’re like many trauma therapists, you have likely never heard this term. You’re probably familiar with post-traumatic growth or maybe even compassion satisfaction, which are very similar to VR but not quite the same…