What Is Vicarious Trauma Anyway?

Oh hello there!!

If you have found your way here to the BRAVE website, I’m willing to bet one of two things -

1) You are well aware of what vicarious trauma is and you’re looking for support and resources in your journey as a trauma therapist.

2) Sure, you’ve heard the term Vicarious Trauma, but you’re not quite sure what that means for yourself, in your own brain and body.

Guess what - whether you’re a number 1, number 2, or number 27, I’ve gotcha covered. 😉

Ok, but really, what IS Vicarious Trauma?

Vicarious trauma, or VT, is a natural experience for any trauma therapist, helper, or healer. When we work to help others overcome trauma and stress, our natural empathic nature means we are a sponge that’s ready to soak up our daily trauma exposures.

There is nothing wrong with the fact that our brains and bodies soak up the stress and trauma from our work - VT is an inevitable occupational hazard for trauma therapists.

Let me repeat that - there is NOTHING WRONG with the fact that you are experiencing Vicarious Trauma

In acknowledging that VT is a thing, and that we may be dealing with it, we are pushing back against generations of messages telling us we aren’t supposed to be affected by our work, that we need to just buck up and suck it up to make it in this field.

That’s BULLSHIT, and I digress… (don’t worry, you can find my rants on this elsewhere!).

How Do I Know If I Have VT?

First things first - vicarious trauma is not a DSM diagnosis, nor should it ever be. However, as trauma therapists, we often use clinical terminology, such as “having VT” to talk about this experience. This is a wonderful thing because it allows us to embrace this natural experience!

So, let’s start to answer this question - how do you know?

When I work with fellow trauma therapists in this area, I help them break VT down into its effects on their emotional, physical, relational, and occupational functioning.

Let’s take a peek at each -

Emotional Effects: When it comes to our emotions, VT can wreak some havoc! For me, I often start to feel more irritable or on-edge. This is often compounded by the fact I can’t get certain clients out of my mind. On the other end of the spectrum is numbing out - many times we want to disconnect from our work, so we turn of all of our emotions.

Physical Effects: VT will show up in your body. Just like trauma gets stored in our cells, so too do our professional trauma exposures. This can turn into frequent headaches and stomachaches, calling in sick to work more often, or feeling so tired and drained that all you can do is crash on the couch at the end of the day.

Relational Effects: Our trauma exposures can show up in our professional and personal relationships. One of my big red flags is isolating - when I’m not managing VT in helpful ways, I don’t want to be around anyone. Personally, this means withdrawing from my loved ones and professionally it shows up as dreading sessions.

Occupational Effects: Of course VT is gonna show up in our work, right?! These effects usually fall into one of 2 broad categories - avoiding your work (sometimes like the plague!) or overworking. If you think about it, you could conceptualize these as avoidance vs. hypervigilance - both give us a false sense of control but neither really helps.

So now what??

First and foremost - the descriptions here are NOT exhaustive. Vicarious Trauma shows up in so many ways, and often likes to sneak up on us when we’re least expecting.

That’s exactly why I created my free Vicarious Trauma Tracker, which will help you get really clear on how VT is showing up for you and help you track VT for 7 days.

Tracking VT for a week gives you a snapshot of how your brain and body are functioning, which then helps you make informed decisions about the kinds of supports you need.

One thing to note - VT likes to be a chameleon and a shape shifter so regular tracking is KEY. That’s why we track vicarious trauma every 3-months in The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective! Keeping tabs on our VT helps us to be proactive in supporting each other and staying creative in the ways we manage VT both personally and professionally.

Next Steps

• If you didn’t snag your VT Tracker yet, GET IT HERE

• Just start tracking - don’t over think it

• Get brutally honest when Naming your VT

  • This info is only for you

• After you have your snapshot, get back to basics

  • What are your tried and true self-care skills? No need to recreate the wheel, start with what you know works

• Reach out with questions and share your insights in the comments below!

• And if you know you’re looking for a community of badass trauma therapists to rally around you, make sure to check out The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective today!