Therapists, the Forgotten Victims of Trauma

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

I had spent almost thirty years speaking to therapists about the traumatic events that occurred when I was a child. When I started, I didn’t give the feelings of these brave people, much thought. I would expect them to always be available to me. The fact is, many therapists quit their positions as sounding boards, burned out on the horrific stories they hear, and the frustrating efforts they make to help traumatized people out of the abyss.

They are the forgotten victims of trauma.

This article is written to help bring to light what therapists go through listening as they do to severely traumatized clients for eight or more hours a day, four or five days a week, year after year.

Therapists and Traumatized Clients

Suppose you are a therapist, and you are seeing a client who was severely traumatized in childhood. The client enters your care but doesn’t trust you. Everything you suggest and all your training can’t change anyone else, but you do your best to help this client see reality as much as possible. You invest a lot of your mental power into this person, and hope to hell; they will not only get better but will survive.

You sit with this injured person once or twice a week and listen to the stories of what they went through. You have young children of your own, and…