Vicarious Trauma: An Interview with Golie Jansen, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Eastern Washington University

From The Research & Advocacy Digest, A Publication of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, 2004

WCSAP: What originally led you to do this research project?

G: During my conversations with therapists who worked with sexual assault survivors, I noticed that they made statements and discussed some behaviors that made me question how the work was affecting them. For instance, I heard about instances of therapists saying they were shopping during every lunch break, needed drinks to relax when they got home or just stated that they were not involved in much of anything. So, I started wondering if they were experiencing vicarious trauma because of their work. I also started to question whether the organization had a responsibility to address some of those negative aspects of sexual assault work with their workers. In reading the literature pertaining to vicarious trauma I wanted to determine whether organizational support made a difference in how it mitigates vicarious trauma. Although there is much literature pertaining to vicarious trauma, there is very little literature on the relationship between organizational support and vicarious trauma, so I set out to conduct a research project on the topic.

WCSAP: Can you describe how you designed your research project?

G: We used two standardized instruments: 1) the Traumatic Stress Institute’s (TSI) Belief Scale and 2) the Measure of Perceived Organizational Support, which measures how satisfied workers are with their organization and their perceptions of support they receive from them. These two measures give us a good idea about the relationship between perceptions of support and whether that support has any influence over how vicariously traumatized they are. We distributed the surveys at WCSAP’s annual conference to a variety of participants, including advocates, educational specialists, managers, community outreach specialists and therapists and had a 40% return rate, which is pretty high.

WCSAP: We know your study is still being analyzed and refined, and will be submitted for formal publication in the near future, but can you tell us what your preliminary findings are?

G: Preliminary findings indicate that participants were definitely experiencing vicarious trauma as a result of this work, but we also are finding that when people perceive their organizations to be supportive, they experience lower levels of vicarious trauma. At this point in the analysis, our hypothesis has been strongly confirmed; this study is leading us to believe in the relationship between organizational support and how much this support can mitigate the severity of vicarious trauma. This information is very much needed because it provides recommendations for organizations on how to manage their programs to mitigate or even prevent the effects of vicarious trauma.

WCSAP: Based on your preliminary findings, what are some recommendations that you would give to sexual assault organizations, their workers and management? What is crucial for them to understand?

G: My recommendations are as follows:

• It is important for organizations to understand their role as the managers of all this and to not place the burden of dealing with it on the individual therapists and advocates.

• Younger, less experienced workers may need more training since we’re finding that they tend to be more vicariously traumatized than more experienced workers.

• Organizations have an obligation to inform and a duty to warn those coming into the field of the potential occupational hazards of the work. This can be done as part of the hiring process so they can make informed choices about whether to continue. Organizations can also set this practice up in their personnel protocols. They should, however, not only stress the hazards, but ways advocates can protect themselves and discuss what the organization will do to help minimize the most negative effects.

• Provide more training on trauma in general to students and sexual assault workers so they are aware of its impact. Universities often don’t emphasize this, which ultimately does a great disservice to those going into the work. Consequently the workers have limited exposure regarding the nature of trauma but then find themselves dealing with extremely traumatized people. This also speaks to the need for more intensive staff development.

WCSAP: Those are great recommendations. Is there anything else you would like to add about this topic?

G: One of the ways that vicarious trauma impacts people is that is affects their worldview, spirituality and sense of identity. Someone may initially be an idealistic person who sees the world as a place where things are fair or where people are basically good. But by doing this work you only work with the atrocities that people tell you. Consequently, you may begin to shift the notion of what your worldview looks like and find yourself becoming more cynical, and the whole idea of hope becomes lost. The question then arises, if I as a therapist or sexual assault advocate lose hope, how can I instill it in people who are most vulnerable? How can I demonstrate that there are ways to address it; that there are antidotes? Also, if we don’t see great success in the work, we may think “I’m a bad therapist” or “I’m a bad advocate.” These are issues that agencies can help workers address. Staff meetings and consultation can help people begin to identify ways they are being affected and develop strategies to deal with them, like fostering self-care routines.

I also want to remind people that even though we hear and see atrocities, it is important to remember that people are doing incredible, beautiful and heroic things out there in the world, every day. You can embrace both the atrocities and the goodness. It’s important to keep a balanced perspective.

I have completed another research project by interviewing 15 sexual assault workers from all over the state. It was amazing to see how those workers who have stayed in this field for ten or more years talked about the joy and satisfaction this work gives them. Many of them said that spirituality now had a big place in their life as a result. In doing this work they gained a deeper understanding of what life is like, what relationships really are and how beautiful the world is. So we also need to begin to talk about post-traumatic growth and how resilient we are. This work can deepen our sense of connection in the world because we can overcome trauma and suffering. However, one won’t come to this place if they don’t address the harmful and hurtful aspects of the work, which ultimately can be damaging to our clients.