What Can Be Inferred About Vicarious Trauma Amongst Mental Health Professionals Working with Offenders?

Date of Award

Summer 8-19-2017

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Lavita Nadkarni

Second Advisor

Jamie Shapiro

Third Advisor

Elizabeth Sather

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Mental health professionals, Trauma, Sex offenders

Abstract

Over the last two decades, increased attention has been afforded to the impact of work on those within “helping fields,” specifically in acknowledgement of the challenges and potentially negative consequences of exposure to trauma-laden content (Cohen & Collens, 2013). A general framework for understanding the effects of trauma is the Assumptive-Worldview Theory, which suggests that people hold several inherent assumptions about the world. Feldman and Kaal (2007) elucidated these beliefs by stating, “The world is benevolent, the world is meaningful, and the self is worthy” (p. 21). This includes the belief that people are generally good, the world is just, events make sense, and negative occurrences are rare, which provides us with a sense of safety and security in our worlds (Feldman & Kaal, 2007). When one is exposed to traumatic content, these assumptions are challenged and creates the distress associated with both direct and indirect trauma (Feldman & Kaal, 2007).

Copyright Date

6-23-2017

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Elizabeth A. Coyle

Provenance

Received from Author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

28 pgs

File Size

308 KB

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