Personal Narrative: Vicarious Trauma

Culminating Paper

Difficulties
Subject matter in trauma is difficult due to the intensity of emotions that surface. Observing acts of abuse were difficult. Particularly the scenes were children were being abused. Moreover, self-injury videos were difficult to watch. Observing a mother who abused her child and then watching the child cope through self-injury was emotional.
Vicarious Trauma Experiences
Vicarious trauma was experienced when I made the sign with the negative words that individuals with self-injury hear about themselves. Emotionally, I began to feel uncomfortable and sad. Most videos that we watched brought on feelings of sadness and anger. Watching them in group setting lowered the submersion level and was helpful. Furthermore,

First, I learned from the book, The New Codependency that my level of codependency within my family is high and that I need to evaluate practicing not taking on my families’ emotions. Second, incredible insight into why I feel people’s emotions was obtained. The realization that our ability to feel others emotions is on a spectrum and that there are ways to not experience them was incredibly helpful. When I am feeling too much around people I now shift my poster. Third feeling like it is okay that everyone does not like me was obtained. Implementing the view that if everyone likes you are probably not being true to yourself was

Implementation of biological science demonstrating responses to stimuli was advantageous. First, understanding how mirror neurons are affecting how we feel when listening to others was revealing and will lead to future intervention strategies when feeling too much from clients. Second, comprehending that traumatic memories are static increased comprehension of the effects of traumatic experiences. Realizing that there are explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memories were valuable because we must remember that the body knows what happened even if the client cannot remember the event consciously. This will help in understanding why a client may be reacting abnormally to certain situations. It allows questions to formulate that can decipher if the client is reacting to smell, touch, visual or sounds? Leading to additional questions the client can use to clarify triggers. When you feel anxiety what do you notice? Is there a smell? What does the environment look like? Is there pattern they are experiencing in these moments? The third scientific principle was that freezing is the limbic system’s best strategy for survival. There is no shame in freezing because it’s purpose is to reduce the registration of pain and dampened emotion. Having the ability to explain to clients that it was not their choice to freeze but, rather a biological effect is extremely beneficial because many people will see freezing as a weakness. The