Taking Care of Yourself, Your Staff, and Your Colleagues: A Workshop on Preventing and Addressing Secondary Trauma

1
Taking Care of Yourself, Your Staff, and Your
ColleaguesA Workshop on Preventing and
Addressing Secondary Trauma
2
A n g e rManipulationDenialM I n I m I
z a t I o nLack of EmpathyVictim
Blaming
Power
Control
3
What Causes Secondary Trauma?

• When sex offenders who are under supervision
  treat US as they treat their victims . . .
• in a manipulating,
• denying, and
• blaming fashion . . .
• WE may feel victimized and abused

4
What Causes Secondary Trauma?

• Dealing with sex offenders can distort our
  perceptions of normal behavior
• Listening to sex offender disclosures is
  emotionally draining and extremely difficult

5
What Causes Secondary Trauma?

• Recognizing and firmly confronting an offenders
  manipulation and abuse of power is part of our
  work
• The use of our own official power sometimes
  violates our own sense of how people should be
  treated

6
What Causes Secondary Trauma?

• Working constantly with deceit and manipulation,
  and being a frequent target of it, can create
  within us a sense of distrust of others
• Feeling responsible for community safety can be
  very burdensome and taxing

7
What are the Signs of Secondary Trauma?

• Feeling distrustful of others, both inside and
  outside our jobs
• Feeling overly responsible for the safety of the
  community
• Overusing our own coping skills
• Feeling isolated

8
What are the Signs of Secondary Trauma?

• Denying our own needs in the face of all the
  work that must be done to protect others
• Relationship problems

9
Physical Symptoms of Prolonged Stress

• MILD FORM
• Headaches
• Heartburn
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Skin rash/hives
• Lower immunity
• High blood pressure

• EXTREME FORM
• Migraines
• Gastric ulcers
• Colitis
• Eczema
• Heart attack
• Stroke

10
Stress Resistance

• PERSONAL CONTROL
• Improve problem-solving
• Identify problem(s)
• Develop prioritize possible solution strategies
• Implement one possible strategy
• Evaluate proposed solutions

11
Stress Resistance (contd)

• LIFE STYLE CHOICES
• Healthy diet
• Regular exercise
• Regular relaxation
• SENSE OF HUMOR
• Have fun, laugh and joke but be careful about
  morgue humor

12
Stress Resistance (contd)

• DEVELOPING MAINTAINING CARING ATTACHMENTS
• REALISTIC GOAL SETTING
• MAINTAINING PURPOSEFUL MEANING IN LIFE

13
Burnout . . .
Burnout is the physical, emotional, and
mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement
in emotionally-demanding situations and prolonged
stress. Pines Aronson (1988) RELENTLESS
RESPONSIBILITY
14
BURN-OUT SELF TEST
15
Burnout Self-Test

• 20-40 No indication of burnout potential
  (but if less than 30, not being
  challenged)
• 41-50 Have good balance
• 51-60 Got some warning signs
• 61-70 Mild burnout probably
  developing physical symptoms
• 71-80 BURNOUT !!!

16
Burnout Warning Signs

• Depression
• Feelings of inadequacy or incompetence
  self-critical
• Cynicism and pessimism
• Loss of compassion
• Discouragement
• Chronic fatigue
• Irritability and inflexibility

17
Combination of Factors

• Nature of work
• Nature of the offenders and crimes worked with
• Cumulative exposure to case facts
• Organizational context of work
• Social and cultural context of work

18
Personal Contributing Factors

• Unrealistic professional expectations
• Personal history of trauma
• Current stressful personal life
• Personal coping strategies that dont help and
  carry heavy costs
• Unfounded belief about the value of stoicism at
  work

19
How Are We Affected?

• Everyday our jobs force us to see the human
  potential for cruelty
• We experience strong reactions of grief, rage,
  and outrage
• Reactions grow as we repeatedly hear about see
  peoples pain loss
• Begin to alternately experience over-whelming
  feelings numb ourselves to get through the day

20
Secondary TraumaBasic Elements

• Not traumatized directly
• Suffer gradual increase of exposure
• Second-hand exposure (multiplied crime after
  crime, case after case) can be traumatizing
• Parallels experience of PTSD
• Can potentially reduce effectiveness shorten
  tenure

21
Warning Signs

• Generalized anxiety depression
• Sleep disruptions / nightmares
• Intrusive imagery / thoughts
• Dissociation / depersonalization

22
Most Common Methods Used to Reduce Anxiety
Depression

• Eating
• Drinking
• Medicating (legal and illegal)
• Smoking
• Sleeping
• Exercise or frantic activity
• Withdrawal

23
Trauma Resilient Agencies

• How can we create agencies that are more
  supportive and trauma-resilient?

24
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Provide agency support for professionals who work
  with this population
• Provide sex offender specific training for
  professionals who work with this population

25
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Train management staff to understand the dynamics
  of sex offending behavior and issues associated
  with secondary trauma

26
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Establish and maintain clear boundaries and
  expectations regarding issues of power
• Provide a safe forum for professionals to discuss
  all aspects of sexual assault and sex offender
  management

27
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Create an environment in which staff members are
  not afraid to laugh
• Send a clear message that an offenders failure
  is NOT the officers failure

28
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Stay aware of changes in the field
• Provide a safe forum for professionals to air
  differences and resolve conflicts

29
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Be flexible in assigning officers to supervise
  sex offender caseloads

30
How Can the Effects of Secondary Trauma be
Mitigated (by the agency)?

• Create a collaborative process so that decisions
  are team-based
• Maintain clear work boundaries and policies

31
Trauma ResilientEmployees

• What Can We Do As Individuals?

32
ABCs of Addressing Secondary TraumaAwareness

• Be self aware know your own trauma map
• Take care of yourself
• Create a self-care list and post it prominently
  in your home or office
• Inventory your current lifestyle choices make
  necessary changes

33
Sample Self-Care List

• Be creative
• Get away
• Get outside, appreciate the weather
• Enjoy other environments
• Have fun
• Socialize

34
ABCs of Addressing Secondary TraumaBalance

• Give self permission to fully experience
  emotional reactions
• Maintain clear work boundaries
• Set realistic goals for self
• Seek out new leisure activity (non-job related)

35
ABCs of Addressing Secondary TraumaConnection

• Listen to feedback from colleagues, friends
  family members
• Avoid professional isolation
• Remember your spiritual side
• Develop support systems

36
Dont wait until you are suffering from secondary
trauma or burnout to start taking care of
yourself !
CELEBRATE LIFE and take care of yourself!