Vicarious Trauma and Therapist Burnout

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Vicarious Trauma and Therapist Burnout

• Presented By
• Jennifer Adamczyk-Abusomwan, MA, LPC
• Jennifer Pravlik, M.ED., LPC

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Objectives

• Understand vicarious traumatization burnout and
  how it effects those in the human service field
• Identify signs and symptoms of vicarious
  traumatization and burnout
• Identify variables that support the development
  of vicarious traumatization and burnout
• Identify personal self-care and burnout reduction
  strategies

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Vocabulary

• Vicarious Traumatization
• Compassion Fatigue
• Negative aspects of working as a helper
• Burnout
• Inefficacy and feeling overwhelmed
• Compassion Satisfaction
• Positive aspects of working as a helper

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Measuring CS CF The Professional Quality of
Life Scale (ProQOL)

• The ProQOL is free
• A 30 item self report measure of the positive and
  negative aspects of caring
• The ProQOL measures Compassion Satisfaction and
  Compassion Fatigue
• Compassion Fatigue has two subscales
• Burnout
• Secondary Trauma

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Well Established

• The ProQOL is the most widely used measure of the
  positive and negative aspects of helping in the
  world
• The ProQOL has proven to be a valid measure of
  compassion satisfaction and fatigue
• It has been used for over 15 years
• The measure was developed with data from over
  3000 people

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www.proqol.org

• For More Information

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Complete ProQol
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Vicarious Secondary Traumatization

• Inevitable.
• Normal.
• Slow.
• Cumulative.
• Process.

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Variables That Increase Vicarious Traumatization

• Work itself
• Work environment
• Personal characteristics

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Signs And Symptoms

• Physical Signs

• Cognitive Signs

• Fatigue
• Nightmares related to consumers trauma
• Sleep disturbances, exaggerated startle response,
  difficulty relaxing
• Physical complaints, headaches, muscle tension,
  abdominal discomfort, frequent illness

• Forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty making
  decisions, difficulty concentrating
• Loss of creativity
• Loss of efficiency
• Preoccupation with safety of self and loved ones
• Unrealistically high expectations of yourself

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Signs and Symptoms

• Emotional Signs

• Behavioral Signs

• Sadness
• Emotional numbness
• Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness
• Difficulty regulating your emotions, strong
  emotional response to minor events
• Denying your own pain or difficulties

• Withdrawal
• Tuning out while listening to traumatic stories
• Loss of sense of humor or playfulness
• Disbelief and denial or others experience
• Survivor guilt
• Loss of compassion
• Loss of trust/faith in humanity

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Therapist Burnout
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Case Vignettes
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Score ProQol
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What Does Your Score Mean?
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Are You Burned Out?
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Defining Burnout

• The definition of burnout is not easily defined
• The Maslach Mutlidimensional Model of burnout
  (Maslach, 1982)
• Three dimensions include
• Increase in depersonalization
• Increase in emotional exhaustion
• Decrease in personal accomplishment

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Why look at burnout?

• It affects at least one third of therapists
• 65 to 75 of helping professionals will
  experience burnout in the first 3-5 years of
  their career
• Burnout effects
• Therapist
• Family of the therapist
• Organization
• Community
• Client

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Signs and Symptoms of Burnout

• Physical and cognitive
• Psychological/Emotional
• Behavioral

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Variables that Increase Burnout

• Gender
• Experience
• Level of training
• Theoretical orientation

• Treatment modality
• Supervision
• Work setting
• Caseload

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Implications Of Burnout
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10 Beliefs That Prevent Helpers From Getting Help
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• We should not experience personal problems
• We view personal problems as a sign of inadequacy
  or failure.
• We think that there is no safe place for us to
  get help.
• We should be aware of all helping resources for
  all problems.
• We have helping skills and can take care of
  ourselves.

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• 6. We often intellectualize and/or disassociate
  from the emotional impact of our problems.
• 7. We often counsel family, friends, and
  significant others a violation of boundaries.
• 8. We feel responsible for and often take the
  blame if a family member or significant other has
  a personal problem.
• 9. We feel embarrassed to seek help from fellow
  professionals.
• 10. As a result of the above, we often wait
  longer than others to let people help and often
  sabotage our own treatment.

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Preventing Burnout and Vicarious Traumatization

• Awareness
• Balance
• Connections
• What do you do for self-care, fun and balance?

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Vicarious Resilience Compassion Satisfaction
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Resiliency Planning

• Individual, personally
• The ProQOL can help you plan where to put your
  energy to increase our resilience
• Organizational planning
• Can help organizations find ways to maximize the
  positive aspects and reduce the negative aspects
  of helping
• Supportive Supervision
• The ProQOL can be used as information for
  discussions

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References