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Escaping the imagery of everyday racial trauma where individuals are being hurt, harmed, or killed because of their race can be nearly impossible. We live in a world of constant news cycles and social media that provide us with updates on almost any event in moments. As a clinician, maintaining your wellness is not just about keeping yourself well after you feel the effects of vicarious racial trauma. When you are engaging in racial trauma work with clients or in systems, you must be proactive to maintain your own mental health.
There are two forms of vicarious racial traumatic stress for clinicians. The first is the stressful impact of living with systemic racism and witnessing other individuals contending with racial trauma—for example, watching the videos of unarmed Black individuals being killed by police or reading articles recounting the harmful treatment of people of color while partaking in everyday events (such as bird watching, shopping, or selling lemonade). The second is unique to clinicians of color. In addition to experiencing their own direct or vicarious racial trauma, these clinicians will also have to hold space open for racially marginalized clients to process direct and vicarious trauma in an understanding environment. The strength this takes is not easy.
Vicarious racial trauma exposure can severely affect how you feel while doing this work and can make the job feel much less enjoyable or productive than when you first began. Staying psychologically healthy means more than practicing simple self-care or avoiding racially traumatic stress when you can. Self-care to combat vicarious racial trauma must be an active process of maintaining wellness in all the areas of your life. One of the benefits of addressing and maintaining wellness as a clinician is the greater likelihood that you will experience satisfaction at work and be less likely to burn out.
Vicarious racial trauma can and will lead to burnout (feeling overwhelmed and unhappy with your job) if it goes unaddressed. This experience is compounded for clinicians who identify with or relate to the victims of racially traumatic events. Experiences of vicarious racial trauma may make burnout happen more intensely and more quickly. At the first signs of burnout and/or experiencing vicarious racial trauma, you should begin thinking about how to get yourself back on track. The path to doing so is different for everyone, yet there are a few common steps:
- Consider which racially charged events have the greatest impact on you. Is it hearing personal stories from clients? Is it watching videos of people who share your identity being hurt, harmed, or killed? Or even experiencing your own direct exposure to racially painful events? Knowing the answer will assist you with clearly identifying the cause of the impact, and then you must take action.
- Notice some of the initial signs that cause you to become overwhelmed, indicating the impact of a direct or vicarious racial event(s). One sign might be a sense of helplessness while conducting therapy with people who you identify with racially and who also had experiences similar to yours. That helplessness may contribute to you feeling ineffective with your clients. Don’t ignore this feeling. Experiences both within the counseling room and in the world can contribute to vicarious racial trauma and have a lasting impact if they go unaddressed.
- Compile an inventory of how you care for yourself during some of your most difficult times. Caring for yourself can come in many different forms. For example, you might limit your intake of racially traumatic events by decreasing the amount of news and social media you consume. You can focus on bodily reactions and take the time needed to attend to the health of your body. Another suggestion may be to join a peer-support group to assist you with processing the most challenging parts of a racially traumatic event before discussing it with a client.
- When you miss the psychological signs that you are not doing well, sometimes your physical reactions can offer clues that you need to handle stress better. If this is the case, work hard to create a set of self-care tools that you can draw from—ideally, tools that have worked for you in the past during extremely painful events.
Most of the time, we are not able to stop racial violence, mitigate microaggressions in the workplace, avoid the trauma our clients bring into sessions, or a host of other issues that can add to burnout. This is why being intentional about self-care is crucial to prevent and buffer the effects of vicarious trauma and burnout. Using the tips above is just a start on the way to living a happier and healthier life as a clinician.
