The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to understand
and describe the experience of vicarious traumatization (VT) as experienced by
clinical psychology graduate students during their first two years of clinical
training. I chose this topic because of my own experience with vicarious
traumatization while doing my practicum at a methadone clinic during my first
year of clinical training. All of my clients had extensive traumatic histories and
were often acutely in crisis. Within the first few months of providing individual
therapy to them, I was exposed to numerous traumatic stories. At the time, I was
aware of the disturbing nature of these stories and that I would need to find a way
to protect myself from being distraught and overwhelmed by them. I took each
day in stride, using basic breathing and grounding techniques before and after
sessions. I was fortunate to have a few of my peers also at the clinic and could
rely on them for support. We found time to process our experiences and support
each other—and, although it was unspoken, it seemed to help us be present with
and available to our clients. Although breathing, grounding, and talking with my
peers helped me cope to some extent with being a helper to a caseload of trauma
survivors for the first time, it was not long before I started to notice that my work
was impacting me outside of session time.
It all happened rather quickly, and in retrospect, if I had known what the
symptoms of vicarious trauma were, I might have been able to take some
preventative action. I thought of my VT symptoms as a natural consequence to
working with trauma survivors and did not feel there was much I could do about