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Introduction to Secondary Trauma
Each year, millions of
children are exposed to some form of severe
traumatic event. Many of these children are
victims of physical, sexual or emotional
abuse or neglect. Many thousands more have
been traumatized by natural disasters (e.g.,
tornadoes, hurricanes, floods), automobile
accidents, drowning, community violence or
interpersonal violence they witness in their
own homes. The trauma suffered by these
children is not benign. It can result in
serious and chronic emotional and behavioral
problems that are very difficult to treat.
And each year, day after day thousands of
teachers, caseworkers, police officers,
judges, pediatricians and child mental
health professionals work with and try to
help these children. And each year, parents,
grandparents, foster parents care for these
children.
All too often, the adults
are working in difficult, resource-limited
situations. The children may present with a
host of problems that can confuse or
overwhelm their caregivers and treaters. The
pain and helplessness of these children can
be passed on to those around them. Listening
to children talk about the trauma, trying to
work in a complicated, frustrating and often
"insensitive" system, feeling helpless when
trying to heal these children – all can make
the adults working with these children
vulnerable to develop their own emotional or
behavioral problems.
The purpose of this
course is to present an overview of the
topic of secondary trauma. The goal is to
gain a better understanding of how to better
serve the children we work with by making
sure we are at our best. The better we
understand how working with traumatized
children affects us both personally and
professionally the better able we will be to
serve them. In order to remain emotionally
healthy ourselves it is critically important
that we understand how the elements of a
child’s trauma of children can be absorbed.
All professionals working with traumatized
children can learn approaches and strategies
to protect themselves from being emotionally
overwhelmed by this work. In the end, the
ability to help traumatized children depends
upon our ability to stay emotionally healthy
and motivated in difficult and often very
frustrating situations.
Before we continue, here are our course objectives:
Course Objectives
1.
To
introduce and discuss the concepts
of burnout and
secondary traumatic stress.
2.
To review how unpredictable stress
and trauma can negatively impact
emotional, cognitive and physical
functioning.
3.
To describe individual,
event-related and systemic factors
which increase or decrease risk
for developing trauma-related
symptoms.
4. To help individuals
understand the value of developing
individualized “protective”
strategies when they work in
conditions likely to cause
secondary traumatic stress
5. To direct individuals to
additional resources that can
further assist in meeting
objectives
What Exactly Is Trauma?
Before we go any further, I want to clarify what "trauma" means for the purposes of this course. A trauma is a psychologically distressing event that is outside the range of usual human experience. Trauma often involves a sense of intense fear, terror, and helplessness.
Trauma should not be confused with stress. As we will learn later, stress is an inevitable component of everyone's life. Trauma is an experience that induces an abnormally intense and prolonged stress response.
Simply by signing up for this course, you have expressed an interest in trauma and perhaps count yourself or someone you love among the statistics cited above. Maybe you know a child who is a victim of childhood trauma, or are an adult still grappling with your own experience.
No matter what brings you here, take a moment now and identify someone or some event in your life or work that makes this issue real. While you take this course, your own experiences with traumatic events and with children or families impacted by trauma will provide the true context for learning.
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