Title: Preventing Retraumatization: A Macro Social Work Approach to Trauma-Informed Practices & Policies - SocialWorker.com
Headings: Preventing Retraumatization: A Macro Social Work Approach to Trauma-Informed Practices & Policies
Preventing Retraumatization: A Macro Social Work Approach to Trauma-Informed Practices & Policies
by Patricia Shelly, MSW, Shelley Hitzel, MSW, and Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW
Defining Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and Retraumatization
How Systems Can Be Traumatizing
Elements in Building Systems To Prevent Retraumatization
Specific Examples of Trauma-Informed Policy by Area:
Tags

Content: For social work practice and systems policy-setting, we propose a macro approach to preventing re-traumatization. Defining Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and Retraumatization
Secondary traumatic stress can follow exposure to another’s experience of trauma, resulting in emotional distress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is as if we take in a portion of the trauma that the other has survived. Unlike burnout, which is a gradual process, STS can result from a single exposure to another’s trauma. Retraumatization is a conscious or unconscious reminder of past trauma that results in a re-experiencing of the initial trauma event. It can be triggered by a situation, an attitude or expression, or by certain environments that replicate the dynamics (loss of power/control/safety) of the original trauma. ×
Expand
Impact of Retraumatization on Service Recipients
Smyth, N.J. (2015). Trauma-Informed Social Work: What is it, and Why Should We Care? [ PowerPoint slides].