Vicarious trauma is defined as the negative changes that happen to individuals, particularly disaster relief workers, over time as they witness and engage with other people’s suffering and needs. This is an ongoing process of change that results from the cumulative effect of contact with survivors of violence, disaster, or those who are struggling. It occurs because you care and empathize with people who are hurting, bringing their pain into your own awareness and experience. Furthermore, it happens because you feel committed or responsible to help, which can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations and feelings of being burdened or overwhelmed.
Over time, this process leads to changes in your psychological and spiritual well-being, including challenges to your deepest beliefs about meaning and hope, ultimately affecting the way you see yourself, the world, and what matters most to you. While being impacted by vicarious trauma is a predictable outcome of helping others in these roles, being beaten down by it is not inevitable.
Awareness: This helps in two ways: identifying and understanding your reactions, and the practice of awareness itself.
- Understanding your responses: Regularly checking in with yourself (physically, emotionally, spiritually) helps you identify what you are experiencing and why. Noticing early warning signs makes it easier to prevent bigger problems. This awareness can lead you to understand what you need and how to change things or manage your responses.
- Awareness as a discipline: Being aware of what you’re doing while you’re doing it, keeping your mind and body in the same place, is a spiritual discipline. This practice can help you feel present and connected, making others’ pain feel more manageable as it touches you without paralyzing you.
Balance: Finding balance is crucial in addressing and transforming vicarious trauma.
- Work-life balance: This involves taking regular breaks (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) to balance your work with the rest of your life. It includes taking breaks during the workday for meals, physical activity, or rest, and taking time off for relaxation, friends, family, spiritual renewal, and professional development. Spending time with people you don’t have to care for or rescue is also important. Chronic lack of balance between caring for others and being cared for is dangerous.
- Balance on the job: Finding balance within your work allows you to work in a sustainable way, viewing humanitarian work as a marathon, not a sprint. This means stopping work after a reasonable number of hours, even in crises, as exhausted workers can make mistakes. Planning to balance more and less challenging tasks whenever possible also helps work effectively and with less emotional exhaustion.
Connection: Connecting with others and with your spiritual self is important.
- Connecting with other people: Social support is beneficial for physical and mental health and involves connecting with personal and professional communities. A true community shares experiences and values and provides support. Maintaining nurturing relationships with family, friends, and colleagues is highly recommended.
- Spiritual connection: Feeling connected to something that nurtures or anchors you (like God, faith, nature, humanity, or another source of meaning) is essential. This core spiritual connection can help prevent and combat the loss of meaning and hope that is central to vicarious trauma. Finding your own path to spiritual renewal and connecting with a sense of awe, joy, wonder, purpose, meaning, and hope, and revisiting it regularly, is key to transforming vicarious trauma
Vicarious trauma is a real risk for relief workers, but it doesn’t have to lead to burnout. By practicing Awareness, maintaining Balance, and fostering Connection, workers can protect their well-being and stay grounded in their purpose. These simple yet powerful strategies help ensure that helping others doesn’t come at the cost of your own health and hope.