Workshop to Prevent Vicarious Trauma

Trainees who treat sexually exploited children are helpless witnesses to long term psychological, social and physical effects of physical and sexual abuse trauma narratives.Trainees and those with limited training and self-care practices are at a greater risk for vicarious traumatization. Unfortunately little attention has been given to the experience of vicarious traumatization in trainees who treat sexually exploited children. In addition, there has been limited research on self-care training resources as a primary prevention tool against vicarious traumatization. The purpose of this study was to develop a self-care PowerPoint workshop to help prevent vicarious traumatization in trainees working with sexually exploited children. The validity of the workshop was evaluated by 5 experts in the field of vicarious traumatization, self-care, working with sexually exploited children and providing supervision to trainees.