By Ellie Izzo, PhD and Vicki Carpel Miller, BSN, MS, LMFT

There are a lot of people giving of their time and energy in the helping professions.  Hard work and dedication takes a heavy toll on the helper.  The cost of helping others cannot be assessed by the naked eye.  Perhaps that is why there is so little being done about it.

Even though you are well trained and complete continuing education on a regular basis, we fear you remain unconscious and uneducated about the signs and symptoms associated with Vicarious Trauma or as we call it, Second-Hand ShockTM.  Intrusive imagery, cynicism, poor memory, isolation, volatile moods, irrational fears, hyper-vigilance, lack of spiritedness and physical problems are noticed but frequently disregarded or attributed to other better known diagnoses. 

How many times have you heard people ask, “How do you do this all day every day?”  If you think about it, it really isn’t strange to anyone that listening to trauma stories every day takes a toll on your emotional, physical and spiritual well being.  Because of the lack of professional support in this area, many helpers feel ashamed or afraid to assert that they are suffering.  They fear repercussions from their licensing boards, their supervisors, their colleagues and their clients.  So they suffer in silence, feeling ashamed and incompetent in their work. 

The welfare of the helping professional is an ever-increasing issue of ethical importance.  Professional helpers often get blamed in very shaming ways for their stress responses rather than being encouraged to see Second-Hand ShockTM or Vicarious Trauma as a natural response to the difficult work we do.  We encourage all helpers to join together and create a social movement that acknowledges and compassionately addresses this occupational hazard.