As I am reaching the end of my graduate school career and will soon be crowned a social worker (holy crap), I am becoming more aware of what is happening within me as I work with clients. To be honest, I feel I've reached a point of empathetic saturation. Every day I am a safe person for my clients to talk to about their joys, successes, difficulties, fears and traumas. I am exposed to their suffering, and I am affected by it. I find myself leaving the office drained, overwhelmed, and carrying the weight of their heartbreaks.
I purchased the book, “Trauma Stewardship” by Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky a few quarters ago as it was highly encouraged by an instructor. A little ambivalent, I never cracked the spine. Perhaps I was too stubborn to acknowledge a book that suggests I may experience what we in the biz like to call… “Secondary Trauma”.
My stubbornness has been overpowered with a few recent experiences, and needless to say I reached out for the book for rays of hope. Hope for what? An awakening…. Affirmations….Guidance.
I devoured this book in 3 days (this is huge considering I haven't read a book for pleasure since the first Twilight), and can’t even begin to describe my feelings of serenity. Here are just a few lines that stuck with me:
“Maintaining compassion for ourselves and others is of paramount importance as we explore our trauma exposure response. “
“If we allow our happiness and sense of success to hinge on things outside of ourselves, we will wait for our well-being indefinitely.”
When I tell people what I am going to school for, I wince every time I get the, "Oh my goodness, you're an angel." or the "I don't know how you do it, I could never do that!" Here, Laura speaks to this:
"The way people react towards us in response to our work makes the impact of trauma exposure more profound because it increases our sense of isolation, and isolation is one of the staples that keeps systematic oppression firmly in place."
When I tell people what I am going to school for, I wince every time I get the, "Oh my goodness, you're an angel." or the "I don't know how you do it, I could never do that!" Here, Laura speaks to this:
"The way people react towards us in response to our work makes the impact of trauma exposure more profound because it increases our sense of isolation, and isolation is one of the staples that keeps systematic oppression firmly in place."
I recommend this book to anyone who does frontline work to ease the trauma of others. This book offers a great reminder that we can make a difference for others, without losing sight of our own self-care.
“Checking in with yourself about why you are doing what you're doing can make all the difference in understanding that you have a choice."
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