Self-Care for Trauma Therapists: Ameliorating Vicarious Traumatization (IN: Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-Care Issues for Clinicians, Researchers, and Educators, edited by B H Stamm Second Edition)

In Pearlman’s words, vicarious traumatization ‘is a process of change resulting from empathic engagement with trauma survivors.’ While Pearlman is clear about the potential risks to the helper, one of the most refreshing aspects of her work is that she also provides a framework for positive transformation. Disruption- the word chosen to describe the process of this change- was carefully chosen to avoid assigning positive or negative value. In this paper, Pearlman continues her theoretical work on vicarious traumatization- supporting it with quantitative evidence. (15 refs)