Vicarious Trauma: ” It Didn’t Happen To Me”

A: What is vicarious trauma?

B: How do we treat it?

C: How do we face it?

Vicarious trauma is an occupational challenge for people working and volunteering in the fields of victim services, therapy law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire services, and other allied professions, due to their continuous exposure to victims of trauma and violence.

This work-related trauma exposure can occur from such experiences as listening to individual clients recount their victimization; looking at videos of exploited children; reviewing case files; hearing about or responding to the aftermath of violence and other traumatic events day after day.

2CE’s, MFT Pending

This workshop will give a better understanding of concept, treatment techniques, and coping with it oneself. Families come to us with a history of traumatic events within family, individually and collectively, as well as trauma across generations. So much exposure to client’s pain impacts the practitioner, but need not derail effectiveness.

Leland Bissinger is an Adler Graduate School Alumnus who has many years of experience working with systems that struggle with conflict: parental, parent-child, divorce, incarceration, parent-child separation, alcohol and drug issues with mental health disorders. His education is in spiritual counseling and psychotherapy. He is licensed by the Board of Marriage and Family Therapy. He has worked in Level 1 Trauma hospitals. Currently he is lead Mental Health Professional (MHP) at Oakridge Residential MICD program for men. There he leads groups, individual sessions, and family sessions. He is a supervisor for LPCC and LMFT.