What is PTSD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD, is a mental health condition that can develop after someone experiences or witnesses a traumatic event.
This article is part of our knowledge base.
Vicarious Trauma – The Cost of Caring
Dr Megan Dobbie, Clinical Psychologist , B.App.Sc. (Hons), D.Psych (Clinical)
Hello! I’m Dr. Megan Dobbie, a Clinical Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor, dedicated to empowering others. With over 25 years of experience, I proudly serve as the Mental Health Lead at Monash University’s Paramedic Health and Wellbeing Research Unit.
I have supported first responders for over 17 years. Together, we can navigate your journey toward strength!
What is vicarious trauma?
Vicarious trauma is called many things, but typically refers to the emotional and psychological strain that comes from indirectly experiencing the trauma of others. Often called the “cost of caring,” it is particularly common among professionals who regularly hear about or witness the aftermath of traumatic events, such as psychologists, mental health clinicians, nursing staff and other healthcare professionals, first responders, and lawyers.
This trauma can be, and commonly is cumulative trauma, meaning over time and exposure to traumatic content through reading, watching, hearing, or seeing the aftermath of traumatic events time, the “residue” of other people’s stories can shift how you see the world, leading to a sense of cynicism, fear, or hopelessness.
What are the key symptoms of vicarious trauma?
Vicarious trauma also mirrors many symptoms of PTSD, and as such it is often referred to as “Secondary Traumatic Stress.” Symptoms may include:
- Intrusive Thoughts: Unwanted images or “movies” of someone else’s trauma playing in your head.
- Changes in Worldview: Developing a “darker” view of the world (e.g., believing that “nowhere is safe” or “everyone is a predator”).
- Emotional Numbing: Feeling “checked out” or unable to feel connected to those around you, even in your personal life.
- Hypervigilance: Scanning for threat constantly, resulting in being overly protective of your loved ones or feeling an exaggerated “startle response” to loud noises.
- Boundary Issues: Feeling a desperate need to “save” clients, like you are the only one who can assist or, conversely, feeling irritable and detached from them.
How does vicarious trauma compare to other types of fatigue?
It is easy to confuse vicarious trauma with other types of professional fatigue. Here is how they differ:
| TERM | THE MAIN CAUSE | KEY CHARACTERISTIC |
| Vicarious Trauma | Exposure to the trauma of others | Shift in worldview; intrusive imagery. |
| Burnout | Workload and systemic stress | Exhaustion and cynicism about the job itself. |
| Compassion Fatigue | Emotional "giving" | Impassive detachment impacting cognitive functioning |
| Empathic Distress | Absorbing the emotional distress of others | feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, desire to withdraw, focus on how much as an indiviudal you are suffering, irritability, poor health |
What are the common risk factors of developing vicarious trauma?
- Personal Trauma History: Having your own past trauma can make you more susceptible to “mirroring” a client’s pain.
- High Exposure: Working with, or exposure to the stories of many highly traumatized individuals.
- Lack of Supervision: Not having a safe space, or dedicated time to “debrief” or process the heavy information you carry.
- Social Isolation: Feeling like your friends or family shouldn’t be exposed to, or “wouldn’t understand” what you see at work.
- Empathic nature: taking an empathic approach to things you are exposed to rather than a compassionate stance.
- Empathic nature: Not having been educated or taught how to manage exposure to trauma with skills based practices to protect you psychologically.
How should vicarious trauma be managed?
- Skill Building: Being taught by trained professionals how to use evidence-based skills to manage exposure to traumatic material psychologically.
- Trauma-Informed Supervision: Regularly talking with a mentor or peer who understands the work and can work through things that seem particularly distressing to you.
- Maintaining Boundaries: Being strict about leaving work at the office and not checking emails or case files at home, limiting exposure at home (e.g. news reports, images online).
- Self-care Routines: Using “non-verbal” ways to process stress, such as art, exercise, or music, focus on quality sleep.
- Worldview Checks: Actively looking for “evidence of good” in the world to balance out the trauma you witness.
What treatment is available?
If you worry about your exposure to traumatic material, or the potential over time for exposure to potentially traumatic events to impact you, prevention and early intervention are key.
We, at Responder Psychology, focus on prevention skills and techniques we can teach you, to buffer you from the distress of exposure. The techniques we use are based in frameworks for Adaptive Information Processing (AIP Model), and other longstanding effective treatment modalities that are evidence-based.
Please reach out if you think these skills may be of benefit and we can look at an assessment of your current wellbeing, and provide a structured wellbeing plan for self-care and skill building to suit your individual needs.
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What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a type of psychotherapy specifically designed to help people heal from trauma and distressing life experiences.
Support for First Responders
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