What Is Vicarious Trauma?
Vicarious trauma can occur from many different situations in life. Most often, those in helping professions, such as social workers, nurses, doctors, first responders, and those in the military, will have higher rates of exposure to traumatic events, which can lead to vicarious traumatic responses. However, as seen with natural disasters around the world or other emergency situations such as shootings and plane crashes, even the witnesses or the volunteers helping with salvage efforts can develop vicarious trauma from what they see.
Vicarious trauma is how your body responds to witnessing the aftermath of a traumatic experience or helping those heal from their traumatic experiences. It’s our body’s response to taking in and identifying with the painful/stressful situation, feeling their pain, and not being able to let go of the emotional toll it’s taking on your body.
The Impact of Vicarious Trauma in High-Stress Roles
As mentioned above, many different roles include high-stress environments. First responders, EMTs, firefighters, and military personnel are often in environments where serious injury or death occurs. Similarly, for the nurses, doctors, and those on the front lines in the emergency rooms and intensive care units. Furthermore, those who are doing ongoing care, hospice, cancer treatment, etc., can develop vicarious trauma due to the bond with patients. Civilians witnessing car accidents, train disasters, fires, or floods can also develop vicarious trauma symptoms, especially if they’ve helped out with the recovery effort
Why EMDR Therapy Is Effective for Vicarious Trauma
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is effective for healing trauma, PTSD, and vicarious trauma. EMDR therapy gently stabilizes the nervous system and prepares the body for healing. The bilateral stimulation itself supports the body and heals the negatively charged stored energy, emotions, and internal pain often associated with traumatic events. Bilateral stimulation is often conducted using tapping or eye movements and can be done in many different forms.
What to Expect in EMDR Therapy Sessions
A major role of EMDR therapy is making sure that you feel comfortable and trust your therapist. Rapport is going to be the first thing that is developed in therapy sessions. From there, we will begin stabilizing the nervous system and the body in preparation for selecting memories to reprocess. As memories are reprocessed, the emotional charge(s) that often accompany them begin to decrease. People tend to notice a more peaceful internal environment that develops throughout reprocessing as well. As the memories are reprocessed, a more functional thought is utilized to replace negative thoughts surrounding that specific memory. These memories can include ‘I did all I could in that situation’ or ‘I was only one person and couldn’t do everything.’ As EMDR therapy progresses, we will continue to reprocess other trauma memories that continue to surface in your daily life.
Finding EMDR Therapy Near Pleasant Prairie, WI
Finding an EMDR therapist near Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, is simple. You can call 720.295.6703 or submit a form by following this link here. Then, we schedule a free 15-minute consultation call to ensure that we are a good fit to work together. If we are a good fit to work together, we set up our first appointment during that call.
Steps You Can Take to Begin Healing
At Revitalize Mental Health, I am currently accepting new clients for both online EMDR therapy, as well as in in-person EMDR therapy services. I have found that in-person therapy works best for those who live near Bristol, Lake Geneva, Salem Lakes, Union Grove, Burlington, and Racine, Wisconsin. For people who live further away, virtual therapy sessions can be just as effective as in-person therapy sessions. I look forward to hearing from you.
By: Daniel Gospodarek, LCSW
Certified EMDR Therapist
