24: Vicarious Trauma & Secondary Traumatic Stress
Therapy Chat
Laura Reagan, LCSW-C
4.4 • 762 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome! Today’s topic is one that’s important to therapy professionals and to first responders, too. To anyone who works with people who are suffering, Vicarious Trauma is important. I just attended a workshop on this topic by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky, the author of Trauma Stewardship.
Here’s what you’ll hear in this episode:
- The terms Vicarious Trauma and Secondary Traumatic Stress are interchangeable.
- Therapists bear witness to the traumatic stories of clients and are affected by them.
- The nature of therapy work requires empathy; it’s honorable, brave, and important work intended to make the world a better place.
- There are small ways to lessen the impact of trauma, by mindfully checking in with yourself and using positive coping methods.
- As a therapist, how much are you “numbing?” We discuss examples.
- Laura recommends spending 12-60 minutes each day, for six days a week, working out to the degree of breaking a sweat.
- We owe it to the people we help to take care of our Vicarious Trauma, and regular exercise is one way to do that.
- Isolation is common in trauma work, because we feel like “nobody understands.”
- The American Counseling Association lists several signs of Vicarious Trauma, including:
-
- Having difficulty talking about feelings
- Feeling diminished joy
- Feeling trapped by work
- Limited range of emotions
- Exaggerated startle reflex
- Hopelessness
- Trouble sleeping
- Exhaustion
- Conflict with other staff
- Trouble with intimacy
- Feeling withdrawn and isolated
- Impatience, apathy
- A change in worldview
- What can you do to make a difference?
-
- Have a mindful presence
- Exercise (12-60 min. several days each week)
- Cultivate connection with yourself and others
- Enrich your life by doing things you love, apart from work
- Make meaning
Resources:
ACA Fact Sheet on Vicarious Trauma
Trauma Stewardship by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Therapy Chat Podcast, episode 24. |
| 0:03.1 | This is the Therapy Chat Podcast. |
| 0:07.1 | The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for seeking help from a licensed |
| 0:12.3 | mental health professional. |
| 0:14.7 | And now, here's Laura Reagan, L-C-S-W-C with today's episode. Try Therapy Notes, the number one rated electronic health record system available today. |
| 0:38.0 | With live telephone support seven days a week, it's clear why Therapy Notes is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars on Trust Pilot and has a 5 star rating on Google. |
| 0:46.9 | Therapy Notes makes billing, scheduling, note taking, and telehealth incredibly easy. |
| 0:51.6 | And now for all you prescribers out there, Therapy Notes is proudly |
| 0:54.7 | introducing e-prescribe. Try it today with no strings attached and see why everyone is switching to |
| 1:00.0 | therapy notes, now featuring e-prescribe. You can get two months free by using promo code chat |
| 1:05.7 | at TherapyNotes.com. Trauma therapists, if you've been waiting for the right time to join Trauma Therapist Network |
| 1:15.6 | membership, this is it. Between now and the end of 2024, you can save up to 50% off of your |
| 1:21.4 | first month of membership when you submit your application at Traumathorapistnetwork.com. |
| 1:26.2 | Join us for live calls every week. Self-care, |
| 1:30.2 | case consultation, networking, and training are included every month. We have four live calls, |
| 1:36.3 | and we have three tiers of membership. If the live calls don't fit your schedule, you can join |
| 1:40.9 | the inner circle where you can access the library of recordings or you can do the |
| 1:46.4 | listing plus membership. All the details are at Traumathorapistnetwork.com. Hope to see you in the community. |
| 1:52.3 | Submit your application at Traumathorapistnetwork.com today. |
| 1:57.6 | Hi, this is Laura Reagan, your host for therapyy Chat. All of you trauma therapists in the audience, |
| 2:03.1 | I want to tell you about a special offering. I'm creating a community for trauma therapists. Do you |
| 2:09.1 | ever feel like you're climbing a mountain all alone, wishing you had someone to guide you? Working as a |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Reagan, LCSW-C, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Reagan, LCSW-C and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.