Abstract
This study explored the struggles and rewards of trauma work and the notion that individuals are changed in some way by the work they do with survivors of traumatic events. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with 12 mental health professionals working in Sri Lanka has shown these changes to have both an accumulated negative emotional impact but also to simultaneously contain positive, growth-promoting and personally satisfying aspects. There is a bias prevalent in the trauma literature towards focusing on the many negative aspects of the impact of working with survivors of trauma or surveying the moderating factors for managing secondary trauma. The present research, instead, uses the paradigm of adversarial growth to demonstrate that when mental health professionals rebuild their assumptive world in light of their experiences of working with survivors of trauma there are valuable opportunities for personal, and by implication, professional growth. This study is of a qualitative nature...
Highlights
Background of SriLanka: conflict and natural disaster A civil conflict has ravaged Sri Lanka for over twenty five years broadly based on differences in language, religion and ethnic origin
Experiences of working with survivors of trauma in Sri Lanka Dr Kuhan Satkunanayagam kuhan@dunelm.org.uk Abstract This study explored the struggles and rewards of trauma work and the notion that individuals are changed in some way by the work they do with survivors of traumatic events
This study set out to engage in a qualitative exploration of mental health professionals’ accounts about the struggles and rewards of trauma work in Sri Lanka with the intention that this exploration would shed light onto the notion that individuals are changed in some way by the work they do with survivors of trauma
Summary
Background of SriLanka: conflict and natural disaster A civil conflict has ravaged Sri Lanka for over twenty five years broadly based on differences in language, religion and ethnic origin. As a result of the civil conflict many, including the participants in this study, have experienced and/or witnessed violence, torture, displacement, and the horrors of war. The psychological effects of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka have been commented on by de Silva, (1993) and Somasundaram, (1998). Somasundaram and Jamunanantha (2002) suggest that the widespread nature of traumatization due to the civil conflict has led to psychosocial reactions becoming accepted as a normal part of life, this is described in the literature as “collective trauma” (Somasundaram, 2007). There were an estimated 35,000 deaths in Sri Lanka and the displacement of over 500,000 people (Miller, 2005). The tsunami accentuated rather than ameliorated the dynamics of the civil conflict within the country. In spite of initial hopes that the tsunami response would provide a space and an incentive to re-energise peace negotiations, it had the opposite effect (Goodhand & Klem, 2005)
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