About 30 social workers participated in a trauma training today at the YABRA COMMUNITY DROP IN Center. Now usually these sessions would entail learning techniques and strategies to help their clients cope with trauma but the main focus wasn't their young patients, it was the social workers themselves. Courtney Weatherburne spoke with the lead facilitator, psychotherapist Dr. Alex Depaz about vicarious trauma and why it's important to address it . Here is that story
At some point in life, we all experience trauma – like the death of a loved one through natural causes, violent murder or suicide.
The sorrow and misery left behind is profound. The most vulnerable ones are the children. They see the blood on the streets, they see the dead bodies.
Deborah Sewell - Managing Director, LOVE Foundation
"They live in this trauma, just where they live, the location where they live, it is a traumatic experience for them."
While these kids can never erase what they have seen in their neighbourhoods, some of them get help from counsellors. But those social workers need help and support themselves. Belizean American Psychotherapist Dr. Alex Depaz is in Belize conducting a workshop for social workers. The focus is to help these officers find a healthy emotional release after therapy sessions but also to address any deep rooted personal problems or trauma they have experienced themselves
Dr. Alex Depaz - Psychotherapist
"What we are working with is vicarious trauma which is when the social worker or therapist work with youth or individuals who have suffered sexual abuse, violence, incest, victims of crime, gang relations any of those that is a traumatic experience, what happen is the social worker carries that it is called transference or counter transference based on their own internal experiences, they might have come from trauma themselves, if they have not worked on their internal issues then when they perform work on these individuals, they can't be competent or effective in the work that they do."
The role of a counsellor or social worker and the impact this field of work has on them is underestimated. Some may say that there is nothing difficult about sitting and listening to someone's problems. But Dr. Depaz says it can be very scarring.
Dr. Alex Depaz - Psychotherapist
"It is actually such a big problem because what happen is these individuals they go out into the field and they work, and they overwork and they don't realize that some of the symptoms are all over the place, its, another word for vicarious trauma is called compassion fatigue which means they are burnt out , they have been in the field for so long, and then they go home police officers, teachers , social workers, and then they are grumpy, they don't know why their grumpy, they take it out on their own child, they have relationship problems but they can't identify what is wrong, they have no idea."
Courtney Weatherburne
"What are some of the specific strategies or approaches that these social workers can take and if you can use a scenario to elucidate."
Dr. Alex Depaz
"Well there is so many, again it goes back to them, what I was explaining to them in there is that they need to have support from their supervisors, for instance, let's say they are working with a child and it is very traumatic and they do have an outlet they are done doing counselling and now they have to go to another child, they are bringing all that baggage, their own baggage, they need a process to debrief which means the supervisor's responsibility is to say okay you have worked with all these kids tell me what is going on for you, do you need to cry and externalize that emotion."
Roshawan Ysaguirre has worked in this field for 10 years and she has developed her own way to channel all these emotions.
Roshawan Ysaguirre - Program Coordinator, Counsellor Restore Belize
"I know as a practitioner you know you have to take the time to just go home, relax, take a hot bath, try to listen to some music and really take care of yourself, it is really difficult sometimes to work with these kids and then go home and not take that trauma home with you."
Dr. Alex Depaz
"The need for counselling here is overwhelming that is what I noticed, I did a short training yesterday and I had youth lining up to see me one on one, but I wanted to work with the counsellors because that way my training can help them to trickle down so that they can do the training with their workers and so on."
There was also a session with city youth yesterday .
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