Domestic violence shelters: Exploring secondary traumatic stress of female counselors

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study of a convenience-based sampling (n=23) from four focus-groups of domestic violence shelter counselors in the Northeastern, U.S in the fall of 2017. These focus group members were asked to discuss how their counseling work with assault survivors, residing in a shelter for battered women, affected them psychologically. The goals of this study were to make organizations and supervisors aware of the psychological strains of this field of practice and to help supervisees to manage the stress often associated with their work. These respondents overwhelmingly reported feelings of helplessness, hyper vigilance and the stressful impact of this work on their personal lives and relationships. Respondents also report that their anxiety, depression and secondary traumatic stress symptoms are somewhat higher than prior to their emotional state prior to their domestic violence shelter work. In response to how clinical supervision could be most helpful, the overwhelming answers were: 1) more education about trauma-informed work (n=19) and more of a chance to discuss clinical skills and interventions with their contemporaries (n=17). Counselors on the frontlines of this type of work often face unique and chronic forms of stress that require informed, responsive and supportive clinical supervision.