Helping Violence Prevention Workers Reveal, Release and Reconnect: A Workshop on Coping with Compassion Fatigue



Objective(s) & Context

 

  • To review violence as an interlocking expression of intimate, relational, and systemic forms of power and control1

  • To identify the ways in which working with those who have lived through experiences of violence are affected

  • To identify and model helpful coping strategies in managing vicarious trauma

 

Violence can be the use of aggressive, physical force to injure somebody or damage something, or the effect created by its threat. Violence is an extremely destructive, or uncontrollable force, with an intensity of feeling, or form of expression that is oppressive, hurtful, harmful and damaging to either one’s self or to others. Violence can be experienced in many forms. It can be self-inflicted (suicide, eating disorders, etc.), relational (sexual assault, domestic violence, etc.), and systemic (racism, sexism, etc.).

 

The impact of violence is far-reaching and can affect a person or group of people psychologically, socially, physically, and spiritually.2 This is called vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress.3 People who work with those who have experienced intimate, relational, and systemic violence in their lives are important to support. The impact of being exposed to stories of violence can often mirror the impact of violence itself, which in turn can prompt a wide variety of helpful and hurtful approaches to coping.

 

Symptoms of vicarious trauma can include anxiety, stress, social withdrawal, grief, sorrow, and an increased sensitization to televised violence. Helpers of those who have experienced violence may begin to feel they can’t enjoy life when so many people in the world are suffering. Hearing stories of betrayal may cause some to distrust their close contacts or become overprotective of their children.

 

Mental health professionals are generally obligated not to share patient information with anyone, so they can't seek comfort from friends or family about a patient experience. While listening to people who have suffered, therapists, community organizers, educators, social workers, and violence prevention workers may have so much empathy that they develop what is called "compassion fatigue.”

 

Several strategies have been documented as very important in managing vicarious trauma.4 These include, but are not limited to, social support, working within a team, ongoing continuing education, balancing work and play, physical activity, spirituality, social activism, and personal therapy.

 

SOME OF THE IMPACTS OF WORKING WITH VIOLENCE

 

Psychological

Physical

Social

Spiritual

Decreased concentration

Anxiety

Depression

Fear

Irritability

Increased sensitivity to violence in news and other media (films, TV, web)

Strain

Aches

Headaches

Compromised Immunity

Withdrawal

Isolation

 

 

Hopelessness

Despair

 

 

Duration

170 minutes (2 hours and 50 minutes)

It can be done in two parts:

Part 1: 60 minutes

Part 2: 100 minutes

Debrief: 10 minutes

 

Group Size

8 – 24

 

Age Group

This activity is suitable for participants 16 yrs and older

 

Skills(s)

Collaboration, Communication, Critical Analysis

 

Format(s) and Technique(s)

Conversation

 

Materials

Flip chart, markers, tape, blank paper, pens, at least 100 small to medium sized beads, a spool of soft or elastic string, scissors

 

Facilitation Tips

  • This workshop is for violence prevention workers, not a girls group.

  • This workshop should follow introductory workshops, as well as the “Violence is...” workshop (or one that explores the definition of violence) in order to ensure that participants have a shared understanding of violence as an interlocking expression of intimate, relational, and systemic violence.

  • This workshop is a form of managing vicarious trauma, as well as an avenue to discussing additional coping strategies. As such, it is important to take time with each part. Part 1 could be it’s own workshop, provided Part 2 follows shortly after (in the next few days or the following week). If you do this workshop in its entirety, give participants a brief break (10-15 min) between Part 1 and 2.

 

Popular Education Prompts

  • Begins with participants’ experiences of working with those who have suffered violence, identifies common patterns and perspectives, leads to introducing or deepen analysis through additional information about vicarious trauma, and invites participants to strategize action in their own lives.

 

Leading this Activity: Steps to Take

This is a two-part activity.

 

Preparation:

1. Have a flip chart prepared with columns marked with these headings: psychological, physical, spiritual, social.

 

Workshop:

Part 1: Revealing Reasons and Patterns

  1. Welcome participants and introduce topic of “Coping with vicarious trauma” by referring to some of the introductory points included in the context section above. You may wish to tailor this to the specific populations and issues participants work with (5 minutes).

  2. Individual Writing: Pass out pens and papers. Invite participants to reflect on the story of why they entered into this work. Ask them to write that story as a short “fairy tale” beginning with “Once upon a time” (10 minutes).

  3. Ask participants to share their story with a partner of their choice (10 minutes).

  4. Ask two or three participants to share their story in the large group (10 minutes).

  5. Ask participants if there are any common threads in the stories they have heard from one another (15 minutes).

  6. Ask participants what kind of violence they come up against in their work. Record answers on flip chart paper (10 minutes).

  7. Hand out “Violence is…” handout. Review definition of violence as an interlocking expression of intimate, relational, and systemic violence. Ask if there is anything they would add to this definition (5 minutes).

  8. Either take a break here (10-15 minutes) or skip to the debrief portion below, thank participants and remind them when Part 2 of the workshop will take place.

 

Part 2: Releasing and Reconnecting

  1. Welcome participants and explain the following directions before proceeding. Explain that you will divide the group into small groups of 4 to 6 people each. Each group should have a piece of flip chart paper and marker. Ask each group to draw an outline of a person and then to indicate how working with violence affects them (15 minutes).

  2. Ask each group to present their flip chart and to speak about how working with violence affects them (approximately 2 minutes per group; total 10 minutes).

  3. Using the prepared flip chart paper with headings, ask participants to review:

a) Psychological impacts of working with violence (decreased concentration, memory, stress, anxiety, sorrow)

b) Social impacts (withdrawal, disinterest, fear of particular people (men)

c) Spiritual impacts (feelings of hopelessness, despair)

d) Physical impacts (back pain, strain, headaches, decreased immunity) (10 minutes).

  1. With a partner, ask participants to reflect on some of the ways in which they have attempted to address these impacts of working with violence in each of these areas (5 minutes).

  2. In large group, ask participants to share ideas of how they have countered the impacts of working with violence. Record these ideas on a separate piece of flip chart paper (10 minutes).

  3. Provide and review handout or reference sheet on “Coping with compassion fatigue.” Acknowledge new ideas raised by the group that may not be on the handout (5 minutes).

  4. Place a bowl of beads at the centre of the circle, with string and scissors. Ask participants to each cut a piece of string and one bead for every idea that they would like to remember, or for each person who provides them with support in dealing with the work that they do. Play soft music while this is happening (25 minutes).

  5. Ask a few volunteers to share the story of their beads in large group (10 minutes).

 

Debrief

• Ask participants to close the workshop by standing in a circle and, in turn, give one word to describe the workshop.

• Optional: If appropriate, ask participants to join hands and pass a squeeze by gently squeezing the hand of the person next to you and asking them to pass it on around the circle. Do a second round, this time asking participants to say word to describe their experience of the workshop.

• Thank participants.

 

Success Indicators

  • Participants identify the impact of working with violence in their lives.

  • Participants engage in conversation with one another about vicarious trauma.

 

 

Source: Nisha Sajnani, Creative Alternatives

 

1 For additional resources on understanding violence as a form of power and control, please see the Duluth Model: http://www.theduluthmodel.org/documents/PhyVio.pdf. It should be noted that this model, while it can be useful, it does not adequately articulate the systemic reasons behind a desire for power and control and is also modeled upon the experiences of middle class, culturally homogeneous women. Please also see Nisha Sajnani and Denise Nadeau’s Wheel of Structural Violence.

2 For an excellent resource on the spiritual impact of violence, see Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence, ad Resistance Ethics by Traci West (New York: NYU Press, 1999).

4 Ibid.