Beyond art expression: Understanding participants’ experience and outcomes of a vicarious trauma and response art workshop

Abstract

We designed a qualitative study to explore and identify outcomes of participants’ experience of a workshop aiming to raise awareness of vicarious trauma (VT) and introduce the practice of response art (RA) for self-care. The workshop was designed and implemented in the winter of 2018. It was facilitated by an art therapist. Seven psychotherapists who work with refugees and asylum claimants attended the event. During the workshop, they received theoretical information about VT and RA, were initiated to the practice of RA, and offered a RA kit to take home. All participants took part in three semi-structured interviews over the two months following the workshop. The data collected from the follow-up interviews was submitted to a thematic analysis to gain an understanding of participants’ experience of the workshop and of RA as well as to elucidate enduring outcomes of the workshop and post-workshop RA experiences. Results suggest the experience was pleasant and beneficial to participants. Knowledge acquisition, the normalization of one’s experience of vicarious trauma, and increased and new awareness of oneself and others, to name a few, were reported by participants as outcomes of the workshop and of RA. The need for practical knowledge consolidation through follow-up workshops was also strongly advised by participants. Recommendations for professional development endeavors bridging VT and RA based on our findings are discussed.