Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Impact of Exposure to Indirect Trauma on Helping Professionals and Students in Training

Abstract

Social workers and other helping professionals provide treatment and services to populations that have experienced trauma, and in doing so, are indirectly or secondarily exposed to explicit details of these traumatic events. Negative effects experienced by workers and students in training, associated with indirect trauma exposure, have been reported in the literature. The following paper describes related terms found in the literature to describe these specific negative effects, with primary emphasis on secondary traumatic stress and its prevention. Secondary traumatic stress effects reported by helping professionals and students in training will be discussed. This paper also reviews the literature on risk factors for developing secondary traumatic stress, and teaching strategies to prevent the development of secondary traumatic stress or reduce these effects, when present.