Mitigating secondary traumatic stress in preservice educators: A pilot study on the role of trauma‐informed practice seminars

A broad sociocultural perspective defines trauma as the result of an event, a series of events, or a set of circumstances that is experienced as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening, with lasting impacts on an individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual wellbeing. Contexts and practices that aim to be “trauma-informed” strive to attend to the complex impacts of trauma, integrating knowledge into policies and practices, and providing a sanctuary from harm. However, there is a body of critical and decolonial scholarship that challenges the ways in which “trauma-informed” practice prioritizes individualized interventions, reinscribes colonial power relations through its conceptualizations of safety, and obscures the role of systemic injustices. Within music therapy trauma scholarship, research has thus far pointed to the affordances of music in ameliorating symptoms of trauma, bypassing unavailable cognitive processes, and working from a strengths-based orientation. In critiquing the tendency of the dominant trauma paradigm to assign vulnerability and reinforce the individual’s responsibility to develop resilience through adversity, this conceptual analysis outlines potential alternatives within music therapy. Drawing on a case example from a research project with young people in school, I elucidate the ways in which music therapy can respond to power relations as they occur within and beyond “trauma-informed” spaces. I highlight two overarching potentials for music therapy within a shifting trauma paradigm: (1) as a site in which to reframe perceived risk by fostering young people’s resistance and building their political agency and (2) in challenging the assumption of “safe spaces” and instead moving toward practices of “structuring safety.”

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Educators' Secondary Traumatic Stress, Children's Trauma, and the Need for Trauma Literacy

Harvard Educational Review ◽

10.17763/1943-5045-89.3.421 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 89 (3) ◽

pp. 421-447 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

HAL A. LAWSON ◽

JAMES C. CARINGI ◽

RUTH GOTTFRIED ◽

BRIAN E. BRIDE ◽

STEPHEN P. HYDON

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

School Improvement ◽

Health Services ◽

Traumatic Stress ◽

Early Identification ◽

Secondary Traumatic Stress ◽

Self Care ◽

Personal Lives ◽

Trauma Informed

In this essay, authors Lawson, Caringi, Gottfried, Bride, and Hydon introduce the concept of trauma literacy, connecting it to students' trauma and educators' secondary traumatic stress (STS). Interactions with traumatized students is one cause of STS; others derive from other traumatic encounters in schools and communities. Undesirable effects of STS start with professional disengagement and declining performance, include spill-over effects into educators' personal lives, and, ultimately, may cause them to leave the profession. The authors contend that alongside trauma-informed pedagogies and mental health services for students, mechanisms are needed for STS prevention, early identification, and rapid response. To benefit from and advance this dual framework, educators need a trauma-informed literacy that enables self-care, facilitates and safeguards interactions with trauma-impacted students and colleagues, and paves the way for expanded school improvement models.

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The Moderator Role of Passion for Work in the Association between Work Stressors and Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Cross‐Level Diary Study among Health Professionals of Intensive Care Units

Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being ◽

10.1111/aphw.12215 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 907-933

Author(s):

Jennifer E. Moreno‐Jiménez ◽

Luis Manuel Blanco‐Donoso ◽

Raquel Rodríguez‐Carvajal ◽

Mario Chico‐Fernández ◽

Juan Carlos Montejo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care ◽

Intensive Care Units ◽

Traumatic Stress ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Secondary Traumatic Stress ◽

Diary Study ◽

Work Stressors ◽

Moderator Role ◽

Passion For Work

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Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout Among Refugee Resettlement Workers: The Role of Coping and Emotional Intelligence

Journal of Traumatic Stress ◽

10.1002/jts.22279 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 202-212 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith ◽

Adriana Espinosa ◽

Tracy Chu ◽

Ryan Hallock

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Traumatic Stress ◽

Secondary Traumatic Stress ◽

Refugee Resettlement

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The role of workplace social capital, compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress in affective organisational commitment of a sample of Iranian nurses

Journal of Research in Nursing ◽

10.1177/1744987118762974 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 446-456 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Seyyed Abolfazl Vagharseyyedin ◽

Bahare Zarei ◽

Mahdi Hosseini

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Traumatic Stress ◽

Secondary Traumatic Stress ◽

Early Recognition ◽

Compassion Satisfaction ◽

Organisational Commitment ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The One ◽

Workplace Social Capital

Background Affective organisational commitment (AOC) refers to employees’ emotional attachment to the organisation and identification with it. It is vital that nurses explore contributors to their AOC because they stand as the largest group of employees in healthcare organisations. Aim This cross-sectional, analytical study explored the role of workplace social capital (WSC), compassion satisfaction (CS), and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in AOC in a sample of Iranian nurses. Method The study sample consisted of 250 nurses working in eight hospitals affiliated with Birjand University of Medical Sciences, eastern Iran. Participants’ WSC was measured using the Social Capital at Work Scale developed by Kouvonen et al. (2006). CS and STS were measured using CS and STS dimensions of the Professional Quality of Life measure (Version 5) developed by Stamm (2010). Results Significant positive associations were found between WSC and AOC ( p < 0.001), between the cognitive dimension of WSC and AOC ( p < 0.001), between the structural dimension of WSC and AOC ( p < 0.001), and between CS and AOC ( p < 0.001). The correlation between STS and AOC ( p < 0.001) was negatively significant. Conclusion Effort to promote WSC and CS on the one hand and prevention and early recognition of STS on the other hand can enhance nurses’ AOC.

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