Vicarious trauma: the cumulative effects of caring

See - Vicarious trauma: the cumulative effects of caring





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For many lawyers and judges (as well as jurors, courtroom personnel, and others), the violent, disturbing reality they witness inside and outside the courtroom as part of their profession can become debilitating. It can become vicarious trauma.

Vicarious trauma, also called compassion fatigue, is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. “You can suffer from PTSD if you experience a life-threatening event or you are exposed to a life-threatening event. You end up with the same symptoms,” says Peter Jaffe, a psychologist and professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University in London, Ont.

The seeds of vicarious trauma are sown as legal professionals start to relive the experience of helping clients and the evidence involved in a case or cases. In doing so, they may become overwhelmed, isolated, distant, anxious, and more. “As a helping professional, you become a reservoir of other people’s trauma — first-person accounts, crime scenes, autopsies. Pretty soon you start to have the same PTSD your clients have. Feelings get transferred,” Jaffe notes.

Vicarious trauma can hit after one case or after years of handling or overseeing disturbing cases. Regardless of the timeframe, the process is the same for lawyers and judges. “They have recurring images and second thoughts. . . . The fact that human beings can do some terrible things hits them very hard,” explains Dr. Isaiah Zimmerman, a clinical psychologist based in San Francisco and Arlington, Va., who has worked with judges suffering from vicarious trauma.

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