Toward a Mechanism for Secondary Trauma Induction and Reduction: Reimagining a Theory of Secondary Traumatic Stress

By Marné Ludick, Charles R. Figley. 2017

187 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article focuses on the mechanism by which real or perceived distress of another in turn distresses us and the process by which we become undistressed. This secondary traumatic stress (STS) mechanism accounts for work-related stress experienced by social workers, psychologists, physicians, first responders, some administrative groups and others who work or live with the traumatized. A model is described that demonstrates the STS mechanism. The compassion fatigue resilience (CFR) model is the latest iteration in successive models that attempt to account for the variance in CFR (higher resilience resulting in lower compassion fatigue). The article presents a thorough description and justification of the 12-variable CFR model. The model helps account for why some people experience little to no compassion stress whereas others do, despite the same levels of exposure and competence when working with the traumatized. This multidimensional model of resilience provides the best estimate yet in depicting STS reactions that account for the increase/decrease of STS. This model has the potential for guiding both research and practice, and teaching trauma survivors and future trauma-exposed professionals how to build up their secondary stress resilience and become more effective in managing secondary stress when their “hearts go out” to the suffering.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/508e49ca76e6c0a2e5104ede4dc22b68172abd34