Professional Posttraumatic Growth After a Shared Traumatic Experience: Manhattan Clinicians' Perspectives on Post-9/11 Practice

Bauwens, Jennifer; Tosone, Carol

doi:10.1080/15325024.2010.519267

Cited by 66 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Resilience was also found to be a mediator between the relationships between insecure attachments, traumatic life events and shared traumatic stress. In a related qualitative study, Bauwens and Tosone (2010) found several common themes, including 9/11 serving as the impetus for enhancing clinical skills and self-care, as well as increased compassion and connectivity to clients. Negative themes included an increased sense of personal vulnerability, feeling unprepared to work in a traumatogenic environment, and disappointment in the response of professional organizations.…”

Section: Shared Trauma: a New Construct For Challenging Timesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Shared Trauma: When the Professional is Personal

2012

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Concepts describing secondary trauma phenomena do not adequately capture the profound impact that collective catastrophic events can have on mental health professionals living and working in traumatogenic environments. Shared trauma, by contrast, contains aspects of primary and secondary trauma, and more accurately describes the extraordinary experiences of clinicians exposed to the same community trauma as their clients. Case vignettes from clinicians in Manhattan and Sderot, Israel are provided to illustrate the transformative changes that clinicians may undergo as a result of dual exposure to trauma. Discussion involves the importance of articulating one's own trauma narrative and attending to self-care prior to resuming clinical work, as well as opportunities for enhanced therapeutic intimacy and caution regarding boundary alterations that may result from clinician self-disclosure. Agency settings can provide the necessary education, supervision, and support to mitigate the negative effects of shared trauma.

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Section: Shared Trauma: a New Construct For Challenging Timesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Shared Trauma: When the Professional is Personal

2012

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“…By reexamining their inner strengths, relationships, spirituality, appreciation of life and other possibilities, many people who struggle with trauma manage to find meaning in their suffering, leading to increased life satisfaction and growth (Triplett, Tedeschi, Cann, Calhoun, & Reeves, 2012). Concepts of vicarious resilience (Edelkott, Engstrom, Hernandez‐Wolfe, & Gansgei, ) and professional posttraumatic growth (Bauwens & Tosone, ) were also developed to describe positive alterations of clinicians’ self and world conception following their empathetic engagements with survivors.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hurtful Gifts? Trauma and Growth Transmission Among Local Clinicians in Postearthquake Haiti

Jaimes

Hassan

Rousseau

2019

Journal of Traumatic Stress

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Although working with trauma survivors can be a source of both deleterious and positive transformations in mental health professionals, little is known about the experience of clinicians in shared traumatic contexts, particularly in the Global South, where most humanitarian crises occur. In collective disasters or armed conflicts, the personal and professional experiences of mental health staff inform each other, situating the clinical space at the intersection between singular and collective spheres. Drawing on an intersubjective and socioecological perspective, this qualitative study explored the ways in which working in a shared traumatic context affected mental health and psychosocial staff in postearthquake Haiti. We interviewed 22 local mental health workers in the capital, Port-au-Prince, 2.5 years after the 2010 disaster. We coded and thematically analyzed interviews using an iterative process, based on grounded theory principles. Thematic analysis uncovered four dynamic poles in clinicians' narratives: balancing duty and desire to help, experiencing fragility and strength, negotiating separation and connection, and sharing hurt and hope. Our findings suggest clinicians considered their work mainly as a source of strength in the face of adversity, whereas experiences of trauma and growth transmissions were mutual and intimately intertwined. We discuss the complexities of clinical work in shared traumatic settings as well as the dynamic interplay between professionals' experiences of suffering and growth. We conclude with recommendations on ways to involve local mental health clinicians in postdisaster contexts while addressing the special needs that they may have to process their own trauma.

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“…While it helps the professionals, it reduces their ability to be present for their helpees and clients and to contain their fears and anxieties. Indeed, Bauwens and Tosone (2010) found that reported feeling both vulnerable and ill-equipped to deal with the gravity of September 11. However, much of the identity and selfesteem of helping professionals is anchored in their ability to be empathic, present, and containing towards those they help.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Trap of Conflicting Needs: Helping Professionals in the Wake of a Shared Traumatic Reality

Baum

2011

Clin Soc Work J

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Many professionals working in the wake of communal disasters are doubly exposed to the disaster, both as professionals and as members of the stricken community. Yet most studies of widely reported distress of these professionals examine manifestations like compassion fatigue, secondary traumatization, and vicarious traumatization, which do not take this double exposure into account. Moreover, these measures reflect the assumption that their distress is rooted in empathy with their clients or helpees. This paper argues that at least some of their distress derives from a self-perceived lapse of empathy. It contends that professionals living and working in a disaster stricken community are caught in a trap of conflicting inner needs stemming from the defenses they mobilize to cope with the heightened mortality salience aroused by communal disasters. Furthermore, it proposes an etiology of their distress.

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Professional Posttraumatic Growth After a Shared Traumatic Experience: Manhattan Clinicians' Perspectives on Post-9/11 Practice

Cited by 66 publications

References 34 publications

Shared Trauma: When the Professional is Personal

Shared Trauma: When the Professional is Personal

Hurtful Gifts? Trauma and Growth Transmission Among Local Clinicians in Postearthquake Haiti

Trap of Conflicting Needs: Helping Professionals in the Wake of a Shared Traumatic Reality

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