Secondary Traumatization, Burnout, and Vicarious Traumatization: A Review of the Literature as It Relates to Therapists Who Treat Trauma
Abstract
Trauma therapy influences the personal and professional lives of therapists as they cope with the secondary traumatic stress associated with treating trauma survivors. Therapists go through an internal process as they try both to make sense out of the stories they hear from clients, and to integrate those stories into their own existing cognitive schemas. During this process of integration, trauma therapists often experience secondary traumatic stress reactions that negatively impact the treatment process, as well as their own experiences of self. Secondary traumatic stress, vicarious traumitization, and worker burnout are distinctly different processes that practitioners need to differentiate, even though they are often similar in their initial presentation.
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Mental health workers are often required to engage explicitly with their clients' distressing experiences.
“However, Mental health workers (MHWs), are often required to engage explicitly with their clients’ distressing experiences [19].”
From Interventions to address empathy-based stress in mental health workers: A scoping review and research agenda (2024) · cites this paper as [19]
Empathic engagement leaves mental health workers at increased risk of empathy-based stress.
“This empathic engagement predicts better client outcomes [22]; however, leaves MHWs at increased risk of EBS [19, 23].”
From Interventions to address empathy-based stress in mental health workers: A scoping review and research agenda (2024) · cites this paper as [19]
Secondary trauma responses in trauma counsellors could be mitigated by supervision practices that validate their experiences of being personally impacted by their work and give them skills to manage this.
“Secondary trauma responses in trauma counsellors could be mitigated by supervision practices that validate their experiences of being personally impacted by their work as well as giving them skills to manage this [19, 97, 98].”
From Interventions to address empathy-based stress in mental health workers: A scoping review and research agenda (2024) · cites this paper as [19]
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References 27 · Cited by 253
- Authors
- Canfield, J.
- Corresponding author
- Canfield, Julie
- Venue
- Smith College Studies in Social Work
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-08-15
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 81-101
- ISSN
- 0037-7317 (ISSN-L)
- 1553-0426
- OpenAlex
- W2139182028
- Cited by
- 253
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 4.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Smith College Studies in Social Work (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Social Work Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Keywords
- secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, therapist burnout, trauma treatment, trauma survivors, therapist self-care
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