Defination for vicarious traumatisation?

Question

Defination for vicarious traumatisation?

Answer 1

Post Traumatic Syndrome?

Answer 2

Vicarious traumatisation describes the psychological effects of trauma on those who have significant human relationships with the immediate victim of the trauma.

For example, the parent of a child who has been raped also usually also experiences significant trauma.  Children of survivors of the n**i holocaust also commonly experienced vicarious trauma.

Workers in helping professions who have close relationships with clients who have suffered major trauma can also experience this, especially if they are not provided with appropriate professional supervision. It is very common in those who counsel survivors of torture, and also those who specialise in front line abuse counselling, particularly if the organisations they work in do not give adequate opportunity for the worker to process the emotional impact of the material they are dealing with in their professional lives.

Symptoms of vicarious traumatisation can include a deadening of normal human emotional responses, poor interpersonal boundaries, and dysfunctional patterns of managing stress.

Organisations that service a client group with high levels of trauma frequently become dysfunctional themselves if they fail to recognise and manage the vicarious trauma in their workers.