Caring for the Caregiver

1. Tyffani Dent, PsyD Responding to the Needs of Victims: A Free One Day Conference September 29, 2016 Presented by: Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh Caring for the Caregiver

3. Objectives • Identify the positive and negative aspects of working in helping professions • Identify concepts of burnout and vicarious trauma experienced by those in the helping professions • Gain understanding of components of self-care

4. When I Grow Up….

5. What Are the Positive Aspects of Your Work?

6. Personal Fulfillment • Feeling of success with our clients • Camaraderie of other service providers • Energized by the work • Satisfaction in some of the outcomes of our work • Pride and satisfaction in enhancing the safety of one’s community • Assisting clients to make restitution to the people they have hurt

7. Personal Awareness • Sense of humility in the face of the struggles of our clients • More able to talk to our children about relationships, violence, sex • More aware of our blessings • Appreciation of our family of origin • Better understanding of our family of origin

8. The Work We Do

9. The Not So Positive Effects of Working in the Field of Violence

10. About “What We Do” • Emotional • Everyone wants to avoid it • “Ick” factor • Sensationalized • Victim-blaming • Always on the Defensive

11. Quote “Those who work with offenders are called upon to bear witness to the crime” ~Judith Herman

12. “In the role of witness to acts of violence, the therapist feels, at times, overwhelmed and experiences, to a lesser degree, the same terror, rage and despair” ~Judith Herman (2001)

13. Vicarious Trauma • Describes changes that occur within clinicians resulting from their work with clients who have experienced sexual trauma (McCann & Pearlman, 1990)

14. Burnout When the joy in the work is gone When you just don’t care anymore

16. Compassion Fatigue • Behaviors and emotions from knowing about traumatic events + stress of helping or wanting to help the survivor/traumatized person

17. Examples • Arguing for sound public policy/supervision requirements that make sense • Reasonable approach to working with offenders • Trying to instill hope in clients when registration and other legislation make it nearly impossible to do so • Probation compliance motivation when consequences don’t end

18. Feelings of inadequacy or ineffectiveness • Increased feelings of cynicism • Being overwhelmed • Compartmentalizing

19. Ignorance is bliss…. But we are not ignorant

20. Feeling responsible for safety of community • Heightened awareness of one’s own vulnerability to sexual violence • Thinking like a sex offender • Confronted with one’s own capacity to abuse • Isolation – not being able to talk about your work • Perception by others – “Why would you want to do that work?” • Intrusive thoughts about sex abuse during intimacy • Disinterest in sex • Dismissed and demeaned if express compassion for abusers

21. In Simple Terms

22. We Carry The Baggage

23. How Has Work Impacted You?

24. What Our Clients Experience…Sound Familiar?

25. How many of you • Look at new boyfriends of family members with “the side eye” • Don’t care that someone is “uncle timmy”---you aren’t letting him be alone with your kids because statistics say…. • Lecture your kids about boundaries---often • Use the terms “emotional abuse, cycle of abuse” ---at dinner parties/bbqs

26. Increased Awareness of Danger • Sex and domestic violence perpetrators are everywhere • Increased vigilance • Hypervigilance • Something is wrong with my child • Decide not to have own children, get in intimate relationships • Aware that we too have the potential for being abusive

27. “You are a sociopath”—My conversation with my cousin

28. “Everybody doesn’t talk like that” • “What’s wrong with you” • “Do you have any feelings?!”

29. Coping Mechanisms Working Overtime

30. Self Esteem Plummets • Question our worth as an therapist • Can’t see growth of clients • Denigrate our self for lack of resilience • Feel inadequate at home and at work

31. Overwhelming Feelings • Anhedonia (depression, despair, joy of life gone) • Hopeless – lose hope that clients can get better • Sleeplessness, nightmares, intrusive thoughts of client’s traumas • Intense stress and anxiety • Emotionally flooded • Overwhelmed • Numb

32. Just Tired….

34. Anger • Disillusioned with parents • Anger at men, fathers • Anger at women, mothers • Anger at God for letting abuse happen • Anger at those who speak without knowledge • Anger at policymakers • Anger at judges/magistrates

36. “You think you have it bad?!” • Reduced patience for “petty problems”

37. What Unhealthy Ways Do You Cope?

38. In “Giving Our All” to our clients, we often leave nothing for ourselves

39. Airplane Masks…..But We Do Not Listen

40. Self Neglect • Not Checking the Distress (Dr. Satira Streeter)

41. Symptoms of Self Neglect • Irritability • Fatigue • Lack of motivation • Lack of energy • Headaches • Upset stomach • Change in appetite • Change in sex drive

43. The work done is often met with negative comments or perceptions even by those within our lives, which can increase feeling hurt, misunderstood, and disconnected (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2007).

44. APA on Self-Care • Balance drives a healthy self-care regime. Balancing a healthy mind and body enhances our personal and professional lives.

45. ABCs of Addressing Vicarious Trauma

46. AWARENESS Of own needs, limits, emotions

47. Assess yourself before you wreck yourself • Physical Self-Care • Psychological Self-Care • Emotional Self-Care • Spiritual Self-Care • Relationship Self-Care • Workplace or Professional Self-Care • Other Areas of Self-Care that are Relevant to You

48. Again…. • What kind of cases are difficult for you? • What victim/perpetrator characteristics keep you up at night? • Have you processed your own past trauma? • When is it “just too much”? • Is it past tired and on to burnout?

49. BALANCE (Of work & play; taking care of others & taking care of yourself)

50. “Get a life”…and allow yourself to live it