| Review of current research supports interventions for the prevention of secondary traumatic stress and its related distresses in providers of psychological services including mental health providers, relatives, or emergency aid workers, working in mental health, crisis work or crime fields. In this dissertation, I develop a training workshop for psychology graduate students on the effects of trauma on the therapist. The focus of the training will be to familiarize students with the risk of working in the field of trauma, and to teach them strategies to increase resilience to the negative effects of trauma exposure. The workshop takes a preventative approach by engendering awareness of coping strategies in the face of trauma exposure and the development of skills that foster adaptation and resilience as a preventative approach. This workshop helps identify risk and protective factors for secondary traumatic stress and address unique issues relating to trauma work and self care as they affect multicultural populations, including race, gender, class, culture, and sexual and gender orientation. |
