Diagnostic of Vicarious Trauma - Admission/Application Essay Example

Diagnostic of Vicarious Trauma Counselors practically deal with clients who are the survivors of trauma. Trauma can be termed as a situation in which someone is confronted with an event involving real or threatened death, threat to self or others’ physical well being(American Psychiatric Association,2000). Client traumas commonly encountered in clinical field comprise childhood sexual abuse; physical assault; domestic violence and natural disasters. Sexual harassment is mostly presented clients trauma with estimates indicating that 1 in 10 men and 1 in 6 will encounter sexual abuse in their childhood, it also indicate that 1 in 4 women are victims of sexual assault in lifetime. Client reaction to traumas are naturally sense of helplessness, horror and a lot of fear, thus resulting a person to experience brutal nervousness that was not there prior to the trauma(American Psychiatric Association,2000). Counselors’ response to client trauma have either been suffer of exhaustion, thus the term vicarious trauma have been used to described counselors reaction to clients traumatic experiences. Construct of VT help counselors’ reaction to client trauma through more composite and complex clarification. VT has been generally referred to as involving major changes in central part of the psychotherapist personality. These changes entail interruption in the cognitive schemas of counselors’ self, memory coordination, and confidence system. VT has been understood to be exacerbated by, and possibly even entrenched in, the open meeting empathy, or the connection, with the client that is inherent in counseling associations. VT also reflects experience of counselors to clients’ traumatic substance and encompasses the consequent cognitive disruptions trained by counselors. Repeated experience to clients’ traumatic experiences could affect a shift in the way the counselor see themselves, others, and world in general. Shifts in cognitive schemas of counselors can have distressing effects on both individual and professional lives. Thorough listening to precise information of clients’ traumatic experience throughout counseling session, counselors happen to be witness to the traumatic realties that many clients have gone through, and this experience can direct to an alteration within the psychological performance of counselors. A counselor concern and respect for clients often becomes low. VT AND CSDT According to scantiness and journalism exploring ways counselors working with traumatized clients can avert this reaction from mounting. As stated earlier VT has its specific progression, one theory can explain this progression is Constructivist Self-Development Theory (CSDT).With this theory individual build their realities throughout the progress of cognitive schemas or perceptions to aid their understanding of immediate being experiences. CSDT ropes the view that changes in these cognitive schemas, or the seeming realities of counselors, happen as a result of relations among clients’ stories and counselors’ individual uniqueness. In this self-development process, counselors are energetic in creating and structuring their own personal perceptions and realities. CSDT reiterates the adaptive function of individual behavior and beliefs, and the individual’s style of affect management (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This indicates that counselors’ VT reactions to client-presented traumas are common and adaptive. CSDT goes on to purports that human cognitive adaptation occurs in the context of interpersonal, intrapsychic, familial, cultural, and , social frameworks. According to CSDT, counselor VT experiences are normal counselor adaptations to current client-presented traumatic substance .Essentially CSDT proposes that illogical perception develop as self-protection against these expressively traumatic experiences. In addition, CSDT suggests that the special effects of these changes in counselors’ cognitive schemas are pervasive in that it can affect counselors’ entire life and cumulative because each traumatized client counselor meets enforces these changes in cognitive schemas. According to CSDT, there are five components of the self and how the self and one’s perceptions of reality are developed:(a)frame of reference;(b)self-capacities;(c)ego resources;(d)psychological needs;(e)cognitive schemas, memory, and perception(American Psychiatric Association,2000).these are the CSDT components that reflects areas in which counselors’ disrupted beliefs and VT reactions happen. Frames of Reference A meaningful frame of reference for experience is fundamental to human need (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Frame of reference mainly deals with one’s identity, belief and world view; it is also the basic knowledge of understanding oneself and the world. It also concerns the cognitive dispensation of causality and acknowledgment. Any interference in an established frame of reference can create confusion for the counselor and possible difficulties in the therapeutic association. For instance while attending to a client, counselor might end up concluding that the victim is to blame. Such a result might be the outcome of the counselors’ frame of reference not to accommodate the possibility of blameless victim. Self-Capacities The second component of CSDT, deals with the inner capabilities that allows an individual to maintain a consistent, rational sense of personality, association, and optimistic self-esteem (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). These self capacities allow persons to handle emotion, carry on positive thoughts about themselves, and also maintain liaison with others. Self-capacities are vulnerable to disruptions when a counselor experience VT and may result in loss of identity ,interpersonal hardships, difficulties in controlling negative emotions or avoiding exposure to media that may convey sufferings of other victims. The inability to bear depressing emotions could have noticeable implications for counselors attempting to serve trauma survivors. Ego Resources This allows individual to meet their psychological needs and relate to others at personal level (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The ability to conceive consequences, ability to set boundaries and ability to protect one self help avoid VT. Disruptions touching these ego resources may encourage symptoms such as strictness and failure to be empathic with clients, a situation that poses a range of handy and ethical dilemmas, particularly for services to trauma victims Safety Needs A sense of security is the most basic to safety requirements. Counselors experiencing VT could feel there is no safe refuge to guard them from real or imagined bullying to personal safety (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).Higher level of anxiety, susceptibility, and, fear may be a way in which this distraction in safety needs is manifested. Counselors experiencing VT may be overly cautious regarding their families or the need to take self- defense. Trust Needs According to CSDT, trust needs include self-trust and other trust. Trust needs to reflect an individual’s ability to trust his or her own opinion and believes, as well as respecting others too .Counselors’ inherent trust needs make him or her vulnerable to VT due to repeated exposure to client trauma shakes the trusting foundations upon which the counselors’ world rest. Preventing VT CSDT has applied to VT various implications for counselors who deal with traumatized client and are thus at risk. Being conscious of possibility of the VT and applying the CSDT model to ones experience may help prevent VT. Counselor needs to apply this at their own personal level so as to avoid negative effects and personal consequences thus encouraging self-care. Educational training also helps decrease the impact of VT. Training focusing on “traumatology” shows that graduate programs for mental health professional need to incorporate training regarding impacts of clients’ on child-hood trauma and its effect on VT. Conclusion Vicarious traumatization is a major concern meant for counselors providing services to traumatized clients. Counselors’ cognizance of possible changes in their attitude about self, others, and the word may be a protective measure against VT. Awareness of personal reactions to VT also allows counselors to put into practice self-care mechanisms to improve such effects, thus minimizing ethical and interpersonal difficulties. Reference American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author Read More