The Impact of Engagement with Client Trauma on Helping Provider Health: Cultivating Wellness

Helping professionals support others in a process of healing and wellness yet working with survivors of trauma can fundamentally impact helping professionals in negative ways (van Dernoot Lipsky L, Burk C, Trauma stewardship: an everyday guide to caring for self while caring for others, Berrette-Kohler Publishers, 2009). Experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue, or vicarious trauma can lead to a variety of negative outcomes for helping professionals, such as deep schematic shifts (McCann IL, Pearlman LA, J Traumat Stress 3:131–149, 1990, https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.2490030110 ) or symptoms that mirror trauma symptoms (Long LM, J Aggress Maltreat Trauma, 29: 421–441, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2019.1578315 ). Helping professionals must also combat these experiences to avoid unethical or ineffective care. Current research demonstrates the use of reflective practice and self-care to foster vicarious resilience (VR; Hernandez-Wolfe P, Revista de Estudios Sociales, 66:9–17, 2018, https://doi.org/10.7440/res66.2018.02 ; Larrieu JA, Dickson AB, Infant Mental Health J, 30:579–590, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.20230 ) and vicarious post-traumatic growth (VPTG, Shakespear-Finch & Barrington, 2012). VR and VPTG offer an alternative process in which helping professionals experience positive changes related to levels of hope, self-care, and meaning-making in work (Hernandez-Wolfe P, Revista de Estudios Sociales, 66:9–17, 2018, https://doi.org/10.7440/res66.2018.02 ; Michalchuk S, Martin SL, Prof Psychol Res Pract 50:145–154, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000212 ). This chapter addresses the risks of trauma work for helping professionals, the connection to relevant ethical codes, and a wellness-based perspective for building personal strength and resilience. It ends with a case study which emphasizes tools for increasing self-compassion, meaning making, and collaboration with other professionals.