Vicarious Resilience Research Articles

Helping Others While Helping Yourself: Vicarious Resilience in Victim Service Workers With and Without Experiences of Victimization

Vicarious resilience refers to the positive effects that a service provider experiences through witnessing the healing, recovery, and resilience of the people they serve. This study used a sample of 804 victim service providers (VSPs) across Canada who completed the Vicarious Resilience Scale (VRS) and answered a closed-ended survey question about why they chose to work or volunteer in the field. Results show that VSPs who entered the field because they have previous experience of victimization had significantly higher VRS scores than their counterparts who entered the field for any other reason (p < .001). It appears that growth in vicarious resilience in VSPs may be spurred by their own experiences of victimization in a process parallel to that modeled on the concepts of “wounded healers” and posttraumatic growth. This furthers our understanding of factors that affect vicarious resilience. Implications for training and supervision of VSPs and recommendations for future studies, are discussed.

Vicarious resilience in ethnic identity among BIPOC counsellors and psychotherapists working with attempted genocide survivors

ABSTRACT BIPOC counsellors and psychotherapists share experiences of identity threats their clients of color face. Refugee attempted genocide survivors have faced the most severe identity threats: persecution of their entire ethnic group, yet they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Vicarious resilience occurs when client resilience following trauma or adversity is transferred onto the counsellor. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine vicarious resilience in ethnic identity development among BIPOC counsellors who recently worked with a resilient refugee attempted genocide survivor. Five counsellors who were racial/ethnic minority group members participated in semi-structured interviews analyzed via thematic analysis. The counsellors were emotionally activated by the intersections between their own and their clients’ identities, forcing them to face and embrace their ethnic selves, and recognize cultural strengths and values that can function as “Roots of Survival”. Changes in professional practice were also reported, involving empowering clients to further develop their own identities, and engaging in psychoeducation and advocacy related to oppression.

Coping and self-care: Mediating the association of job stressors with vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience

Summary The indirect exposure to patients’ traumatic experiences may generate contrasting reactions in helping professionals, such as vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience. Theoretical models predict that job stressors facilitate vicarious trauma and reduce vicarious resilience and that personal resources may mediate this relationship. However, there is little empirical research linking some of these variables. This study aims to test: (a) Whether job stressors (family-work conflict, work-family conflict and role conflict) predict personal resources (coping strategies and self-care practices) and reactions to indirect exposure to trauma (vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience); and (b) whether personal resources predict these reactions and mediate their association with job stressors. A convenience sample of 448 social workers from Spain completed an online questionnaire between October 2020 and January 2021. Findings Structural equation modelling revealed that job stressors generally hindered problem-focused coping and self-care and enabled emotion-focused coping; only vicarious trauma was directly associated with role conflict. Primarily, personal resources predicted the reactions to indirect exposure to trauma and mediated the influence of job stressors in these reactions. Applications In line with previous research, results support the need for personal and organizational interventions to decrease vicarious trauma and promote vicarious resilience.

The Wounded Healer in Shared Traumatic Reality After the Seventh of October Attack: "That the Personal World and the Professional World are Shattered".

In Shared Traumatic Reality (STR), therapists and patients face similar threats, leading to increased stress and blurred personal-professional boundaries for healthcare providers. It impacts everyone in the community, as witnessed in the southern region of Israel. The challenge for caregivers aiding displaced individuals was unique-providing therapy while caring for their children. STR poses challenges but also growth opportunities. Experiencing trauma firsthand offers insights, fostering professional and personal development. Despite the difficulties of handling loss and traumatic stories, this reality demands new coping mechanisms for healthcare providers to grow through adversity. Community involvement aids professional empowerment amidst STR, reinforcing therapists' identification with patients. This new reality reveals remarkable resilience among those who endured tragedies, offering lessons in vicarious resilience. The concept of the wounded healer (WH) reflects how personal trauma can enhance therapeutic abilities by profoundly empathizing with patients' pain. Navigating personal hardships is crucial to avoid projecting onto patients during therapy. The WH's identification with patient trauma strengthens the therapeutic bond, leading to better outcomes.

Listening as activism: Re‐thinking resilience and justice‐doing as a response to trauma

AbstractJust as language is political, so too is the way we listen to people. Our listening shapes the way we witness and respond to others and the stories of life that are co‐constructed in the process. Co‐constructing resiliences includes returning the gaze on the political and social contexts in which harm to people takes place. In the process, we explore listening practices associated with therapeutic activism (D'Arrigo‐Patrick et al., 2017) and the generative potential offered by tuning into the meanings people attribute to their responses to violence and how people do resilience in their lives offers. We will demonstrate how our work with a family has led us to think about how we can all be jointly sustained in the work by making moments and practices of resistance and resilience visible. We will explore how these practices can enhance a sense of personal agency and create experiences of vicarious resilience (Hernandez‐Wolfe, 2018) that help people access more possibilities in their lives.

Attending to Our Own Trauma: Promoting Vicarious Resilience and Preventing Vicarious Traumatization among Researchers

Abstract Vicarious trauma refers to the cognitive and affective impacts of trauma exposure through one’s work, with traumatization indicating negative effects and resilience, positive. While vicarious trauma has been studied among practitioners, little is known about trauma exposure’s effects on researchers. This exploratory study addresses this gap through an examination of vicarious trauma policies and procedures used by a homicide research team, and aims to understand if and how research assistants (RAs) were affected by reading homicide case files, how they took care of themselves while working, and how the policies supported their well-being. Eleven RAs participated in focus groups and interviews and responded to a quantitative survey about their experiences. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. All RAs mentioned traumatic impact, noting that certain factors increased or buffeted against traumatization. RAs described several means of supporting their own well-being, such as cooking or talking with friends. Findings indicated the trauma-informed policies, and the related informal team dynamics, were core to promoting RAs’ well-being. It is imperative that future studies proactively promote vicarious resilience among team members to ensure sustainable and accurate data collection, prevent RA burnout, and effectively train future researchers to sustain their work throughout their careers.

Self-care and vicarious resilience in victim advocates: A national study.

Self-care and vicarious resilience in victim advocates: A national study.

Protocol for a study on vicarious resilience in service providers for victims and survivors of violence.

Few national studies examine victim service providers (VSPs), the important work that they do, and the resources and strategies contributing to their wellness at work. The proposed study aims to investigate the vicarious resilience of those working within the Canadian victim services sector. Participants will be asked about the ways in which they have changed and experienced resilience through exposure to supporting their clients, in addition to the challenges and barriers that still exist. A mixed-methods study incorporating an online survey, virtual focus groups, and semi-structured in-depth interviews will explore job satisfaction, compassion fatigue, turnover intention, instances of workplace microaggressions, vicarious resilience, coping strategies and self-care of VSP participants. The results will contribute to the literature on themes related to the wellness of VSPs. Dissemination of results will provide a Canadian perspective on organizational wellness, including challenges encountered as a result of COVID-19, working conditions that require further advocacy, and emerging perspectives on protective factors.

Solution Focused Brief Therapy and Vicarious Resilience in Bolivian Protective Family Services Workers

Vicarious resilience (VR) is defined as the positive effects caregivers experience within their personal lives, their work lives, and within their worldview as a whole, that come from witnessing the resilience that clients demonstrate in facing their traumatic experiences. This research study is a quasi-experimental pilot study about how solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) influences the vicarious resilience of family protective system (SLIM) workers in Bolivia. The Vicarious Resilience Inventory (VRI) was administered in a pretest/posttest design for an experimental group (applying SFBT) and a control group (training as usual). Both groups experienced an increase in vicarious resilience, but the SFBT group experienced statistically significant improvements on three subscales of the VRI; (a) resourcefulness, (b) recognition of spirituality, and (c) self-awareness. Two other subscales of the VRI neared statistical significance for the SFBT group, client inspired hope and consciousness of power. It is anticipated that with a larger sample size these subscales would also have been statistically significant. Additional research is needed to generalize the results of this pilot study to a larger population.

Culture as both a risk and protective factor for vicarious traumatisation in nurses working with refugees: a literature review.

BackgroundThere are an estimated 25.9 million refugees worldwide, who require health services while living in host countries. To effectively treat refugee patients, nurses must document their history which requires hearing about their traumatic journeys. Listening to trauma has been shown to cause vicarious traumatisation.AimsTo identify the risk and protective factors involved in the development of vicarious traumatisation.MethodsAfter searching four databases, nine studies were selected for review. Key words ‘vicarious trauma’, ‘refugee’ and ‘nurse’ formed the search. Articles were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.ResultsVicarious traumatisation is common amongst nurses working with refugees. Aspects of culture formed the principal risk and protective factors. Differences between cultures made for strained communication while similarities created better understanding. Some cultures provided more resilience than others. Vicarious resilience, a feeling of personal growth resulting from hearing about and helping patients overcome trauma, was also highlighted. The development of vicarious resilience was a protective factor.ConclusionsFurther investigation into how to minimise risk and establish protective factors is required. Some coping recommendations include personal reflection, comprehensive training and better access to counselling.

Hierarchies of Heroism: Captain Tom, Spitfires, and the Limits of Militarized Vicarious Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the label of “hero” assigned to an expanded range of unexpected figures, from carers to supermarket delivery drivers, lauded for their selflessness. In Britain, however, none received the levels of public veneration experienced by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore, who became famous for completing a sponsored walk of his garden for his 100th birthday, raising £38.9 million for National Health Service charities. What can account for the resonance of an elderly war veteran in the context of a global health emergency? Contributing to nascent international relations scholarship on vicarious identity, ontological security, and militarism, in this article we develop the concepts “vicarious resilience” and “vicarious militarism” to explain why “Captain Tom” captured the British public imagination. While objects of vicarious identification are typically distinguished by their superior agency, we argue that the case of Captain Tom is interesting because it was not Moore's agency but his symbolism that made him a target for vicarious identification. Specifically, his military symbolism facilitated vicarious identification with Britain's mythologized wartime past aimed at assuaging ontological anxieties generated by the pandemic and boosting national resilience. However, the broader militarized pandemic response also reasserted gendered and racialized military heroism at a moment when the category of hero was being extended to civilian occupations. Finally, we note the limits of vicarious militarism in responding to ontological insecurity, including its tendency to generate anxieties of intergenerational insufficiency and its rhythmic/episodic character, concluding by commenting on the future trajectory of pandemic subjectivities.

(PO-142) Vicarious Resilience: Shifting the Perspective of Trauma Work for Consult-Liaison Psychiatrists

(PO-142) Vicarious Resilience: Shifting the Perspective of Trauma Work for Consult-Liaison Psychiatrists

Tensions in the therapeutic relationship: emotional labour in the response to child abuse and neglect in primary healthcare

BackgroundChild abuse and neglect (child abuse) is a prevalent public health issue linked to survivors experiencing a higher risk of health issues such as obesity, heart disease and major depression. Given the significant impact of child abuse on health, general practitioners (GPs) and primary care nurses (nurses) are well-placed to respond to child abuse. However, research shows that responding to child abuse is difficult for health practitioners, especially the act of reporting child abuse. The present study aimed to understand how GPs and nurses experience the response to child abuse in primary healthcare.MethodsThis study employed qualitative methods. Twenty-six in-depth individual and group interviews were conducted with 30 GPs and nurses. The interviews were audio recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.ResultsThe participants were mostly metropolitan-based female GPs. Participants were sampled from two settings: private general practice and community health; and Doctors in Secondary Schools, a program that places GPs and nurses in high schools. Thematic analysis generated four themes: blowing trust out of the water; riding the reaction wave; opening a hornet’s nest; and battling emotions. Participants felt that, in considering child abuse, they were betraying the trust of the therapeutic relationship and thus, had to manage their patients’ reactions to preserve the therapeutic relationship. They used strategies that created shifts in perception in both themselves and their patients to help maintain the therapeutic relationship. Participants often felt that they had to compromise their professional code of ethics to fulfil their mandatory reporting obligations. Thus, they experienced internal emotional battles when responding which led to some experiencing burnout or vicarious trauma and others resilience. This complex interplay of relationship and emotional management was placed in the context of emotional labour theory. We contend that our participants undertook emotional labour across three levels: internal, organisational and systemic.ConclusionsWe conclude that the emotional labour exerted in the response to child abuse can be diminished by: developing strategies for therapeutic relationship management; undertaking an internal, organisational and systemic values assessment; and facilitating communication between health professionals and the child protection system.

Psychosocial correlates of mental health work with human trafficking survivors: Risk and resilience.

Mental health professionals' responses to work with trauma survivors vary among a range of aversive and positive psychosocial experiences. This study examines the prevalence and predictors of these responses, including secondary traumatic stress (STS), vicarious resilience (VR), burnout, and compassion satisfaction (CS), among mental health professionals who work specifically with human trafficking survivors within the United States (n = 89). Specific attention is devoted to examining the role of professionals' own trauma histories and their self-care practices in building their resiliency and potentially reducing their risk of aversive work-related psychosocial experiences. Findings reveal that responses range in intensity among this group of providers. Promisingly, none of the professionals demonstrated high levels of burnout and none demonstrated low CS. Furthermore, the majority of professionals in the study had low-to-moderate levels of STS and moderate-to-high levels of VR. Results from a series of multiple regressions exploring predictors of these correlates suggest that although professionals who work with trafficking survivors may risk burnout and STS, they also may receive significant personal satisfaction, growth, and resilience from their work. Results also indicate that professionals' personal experiences with trauma may act as a protective factor against aversive correlates. Altogether, findings suggest a need for professionals' active engagement in a wide variety of self-care behaviors, including seeking personal therapy as needed and engaging in advocacy, as a strategy for ensuring their well-being as they deliver mental health support for human trafficking survivors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Therapists’ experiences of counseling foreign-national sex-trafficking survivors in the U.S. and the impact of COVID-19.

This phenomenological study examines therapists' experiences working with foreign-national survivors of sex-trafficking in the United States. Data collection started before the COVID-19 pandemic and additional questions, regarding the impact of the pandemic, were added to the protocol at interview no. 6. Based on in-depth semistructured interviews with 11 therapists, the impact that this work had on clinicians followed a U-shaped curve through which 6 predominant themes were identified including (a) the clinical experience of working with sex-trafficking survivors;(b) vicarious experiences;(c) connection between spirituality/religiosity and counseling;(d) the role of sociocultural identities;(e) identification of needs;and (f) the pandemic's influence on counseling and clients' lives. Findings suggest both challenges, such as vicarious traumatization, and opportunities for growth, such as vicarious resilience, for therapists in their work with sex-trafficking survivors. Suggestions for therapists to improve professional longevity were generated directly from the interviews and include an emphasis on continuing education and self-care. Implications for future research and service organizations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Vicariously Resilient or Traumatised Social Workers: Exploring Some Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract Due to the indirect exposure to traumatic realities, social workers may experience emotional responses of vicarious traumatisation or vicarious resilience. Previous research indicated that risk factors (workload and trauma caseload) provoke vicarious traumatisation and that protection factors (recovery experiences and organisational support) can buffer this relationship. However, the empirical testing of these associations was scarce amongst social workers. This cross-sectional study aims to answer two main research questions: (i) can workload and trauma caseload predict vicarious resilience and vicarious trauma? (ii) Can recovery experiences and organisational support mediate the influence of risk factors on emotional responses? A sample of 373 Spanish social workers (87 per cent females) completed a questionnaire online. The structural equation modelling analyses showed that workload and trauma caseload make recovery experiences and organisational support less likely, facilitating the emergence of vicarious trauma. Recovery experiences and organisational support protect people from vicarious trauma and promote vicarious resilience, both directly and by limiting the influence of workload and trauma caseload. These results highlight the need for interventions enhancing recovery experiences and organisational support as a means to promote vicarious resilience and to decrease vicarious trauma. The need to reduce other risk factors, enhancing protective factors, is also noted.

Helping Injured Animals Helps the Helper, Too: Vicarious Resilience and the Animal–Human Bond

In this article we report on an exploratory study that focused on the positive impacts that helping injured animals recover had on the helpers, and these impacts are related to the concept of vicar...

Vicarious Resilience: Cultivating Internal Strength Through External Support

Although burnout is shared among colleagues, most solutions have focused on the individual.

Fostering Vicarious Resilience for Perinatal Palliative Care Professionals.

Background: The demands on healthcare professionals caring for families grappling with a life-limiting condition in an unborn or newly born child can be overwhelming. Clinicians working in emergency/trauma, hospice, and pediatric settings are already at high risk for burnout and compassion fatigue, which can leave healthcare institutions increasingly vulnerable to poor retention, absenteeism, and waning quality of care. The provision of exemplary palliative care requires a cohesive interdisciplinary team of seasoned professionals resilient to daily challenges. In September 2019, the American College of Gynecology, in a committee opinion, published standard of care guidelines for perinatal palliative care. This has created an impetus for exceptional caregiving and a greater demand for both physician and interdisciplinary healthcare provider education, training, and ongoing support that promotes truly beneficent care for pregnant patients confronted with life-limiting fetal conditions.Methods: A scoping review of the research literature was conducted in order to distinguish the barriers and facilitators of professional resiliency in perinatal palliative care. PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, and EBSCO Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collections were systematically reviewed. Because of the paucity of studies specific to perinatal palliative care, several interviews of nurses and physicians in that field were conducted and analyzed for content distinctly pertaining to personal practices or workplace factors that support or hinder professional resiliency.Results: The research indicated that medical professionals often cite a lack of knowledge, inexperience using effective communication skills related to perinatal palliative care and bereavement, challenges with interdisciplinary collaboration, misconceptions about the role and function of palliative care in the perinatal or neonatal settings, moral distress, and workload challenges as encumbrances to professional satisfaction. Strategic implementation of facility-wide bereavement care training, effective communication modalities, and evidenced-based practical applications are critical components for a thriving perinatal palliative care team. Authentic formal and informal debriefing, peer mentoring, adequate caseloads, robust provider self-care practices, exceptional relational efficacy, and cultural and spiritual humility can foster personal growth and even vicarious resilience for perinatal palliative care professionals.Conclusions: Support should be strategic and multifaceted. The onus to implement salient measures to cultivate resilience in the perinatal palliative caregiver should not be only upon the individuals themselves but also upon prevailing regulatory governing bodies and healthcare institutions.

COVID-19: Vicarious traumatisation and resilience in Mental Health Psychology Practitioners

Almost no nation has been spared as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has swept around the world. As the pandemic has upended much of society, frontline health care workers have shouldered much of the burden. Among other professionals, Mental Health Psychology Practitioners contribute significantly to fighting off the negative psychological effects of COVID-19, including distress, anxiety, and depression – provided they themselves can demonstrate resilience.