The Trauma Therapist Trauma Response Model
From The Vicarious Trauma and Resilience Podcast · 00:20:22
Show by Dr. Jenny Hughes
Vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout get used interchangeably in the media and even in the literature. They describe four different processes, and confusing them costs trauma therapists real time and real support.In this first episode, Dr. Jenny Hughes walks through the Trauma Therapist Trauma Response Model, the framework she built after years of teaching trauma therapists about vicarious trauma and after coming apart at the seams from it herself.Some trauma therapists carry this work for decades and stay in love with it. Others leave the field within a few years. The difference has almost nothing to do with how strong you are, and almost everything to do with how supported and resourced you've been.What this episode covers:Vicarious trauma, coined in 1990 to name what empathic engagement does to your worldview over time. It comes with the work, because empathic engagement is the foundation of the job.Compassion fatigue, coined in 1992 and first described in nurses. The empty cup, the numbness, the warm body in the chair, and the question underneath about whether you're good enough for this work.Secondary traumatic stress, the one that is an actual DSM-5 diagnosis, and how it differs from the two before it. Jenny shares her own experience of it as the trauma psychologist at a level one trauma center in New Orleans, and what actually brought her back.Burnout, depersonalization, and why isolation is the single biggest risk factor the literature points to.Vicarious resilience, discovered almost by accident in the early 2000s by researchers studying therapists working with survivors of torture. The same mechanism as vicarious trauma, running the opposite direction.Chapters00:00 Understanding vicarious trauma in therapy05:16 Recognizing and managing burnout signs09:05 Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress12:54 Discussing burnout and depersonalization14:28 Importance of seeking support17:15 Understanding vicarious resilience in therapyWant to see where you currently fall on the model?The free Trauma Therapist Trauma Response Quiz takes a few minutes: https://www.braveproviders.com/quizFOR ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADERSBringing this work to your team, practice, or agency: https://www.braveproviders.com/speakingDr. Jenny Hughes is a trauma psychologist and the founder of The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective. More at braveproviders.comVicarious trauma comes with being human in this work, and so does vicarious resilience. Being human is how we stay in the work we love.
More episodes of The Vicarious Trauma and Resilience Podcast
More episodes
- The emotional and personal demands of running a group practice With Lisa Duez
- Why Self-Care Doesn't Fix Therapist Burnout (And What Does)
- Becoming Human Inside Your Business with Jenny Melrose
- Why Won't My Team Speak Up? How to Get Clinicians Talking
- Vicarious Trauma, Not Burnout, What Leaders Need to Know
- How Therapists Can Stay Regulated During Trauma Sessions, with Lynn Fraser
- Why Therapist Spaces Aren't Safe
- Why Therapists Quit and No One Sees It Coming
- Vicarious Resilience: What It Is and Why It Matters
- Compassion Fatigue vs Vicarious Trauma: The Difference Every Trauma Therapist Should Know
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