Idaho State University Institute of Rural Health
National Child Traumatic Stress Network Rural Archive (coming soon!)
Preface To Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-Care Issues for Clinicians, Researchers and Educators
Reprinted here by permission of Sidran Press, All Rights Reserved
ã Sidran Press, 1995. You may make copies of this paper as long as you (a) do not change the document, (b) you do not sell it for a profit, and (c) you do give credit to the author and the publisher of this book: Stamm, B. H. (1995). Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-Care Issues for Clinicians, Researchers and Educators. Lutherville, MD: Sidran Press.
After much contemplation, and consulting with several colleagues, I have decided to include a very personal essay about my motivation for doing trauma work and particularly, to supporting the caregivers who do trauma work. While this essay not traditional scientific writing, perhaps it reflects the very demand that Secondary Traumatic Stress makes on us: to depart from believing in the illusion that we are protected from other’s pain by scientific postures and our "white coats." I would not suggest that we leave objectivity behind, but that we recognize that our personal passions drive our desires to do this work and our training and good supervision--of our clinical work, or research, or our teaching--helps us keep our balance and objectivity. Objectivity and flintiness are not a guarantee of our training. Nor should they be. The capacity for compassion and empathy seem to be at the core of our ability to do the work and at the core of our ability to be wounded by the work (Figley, in this volume).
These ideas are at the crux of my desire to bring together the chapters in this book. My ideas are not scientific but are born of that passion that fuels science. And, I believe they convey much of what we are discovering as a caregiving group: trauma can be terrifying, and fear can be debilitating, but these experiences can present opportunities. Engaging the power of trauma will change us, and it has the power to harm us when we engage it in such close quarters. But, engaging it can bring us to the edge of human condition and offer us opportunities to move beyond the common distractions of life which frees us to deal with the unspeakable which is happening in our very experience.
Those of you who are reading this likely have strong wills and have applied these wills to your academic, clinical, and personal endeavors. You are to be commended for this. The ear or eye that conceives the truth is that of an individual and should never be ignored or belittled. However, I would submit that there is a point where individual will is no longer sufficient. At these times, I find myself awash in the tension between the individual and the community. In these cases, without loosing the value of individual introspection, my recognition of being in pain and overwhelmed serves to make me aware that the solutions I have are a spent force. Trauma work reminds me of my individual limits; I come face to face with the fact that the world is full of death, hate, violence, and evil.
In the past half-decade, my family has been involved in documenting the establishment of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, USA. From 1878-1900, as a result of the U.S. government policies, the total Shoshone Indian population declined by over 30% while the Arapahoe Indians saw a nearly 15% drop. In 1873 the government food rations were estimated to be 2300 calories per person per day. By 1893 the rations were 250 calories per person per day. Concomitantly, game supplies on reservation were nearly depleted from hunting pressure and the inhabitants were forbidden to hunt off reservation (Stamm, 1994, Stamm & Stamm, 1995).
Nearly a decade ago, my community sheltered an 18-year-old who had been caught in one of the wars in South America. Because he was an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church, at age 14, he witnessed the murder of his family members, was arrested, and then tortured for information about the Church’s activities.
On my bookshelf is a beautiful spice basket from Africa. I received a thank-you gift after teaching a Trauma Self-Care workshop. The giver was a former African relief worker who had left her post in fear for her life and the lives of her children. The village where she worked had been the repository of knowledge about how to make these traditional baskets. I was taken aback by the generosity of her gift but my heart was doubly moved when she told me that there would be no more baskets. All of the people in the village had been killed in the bloody battles raging in their area. For me, this basket is a daily reminder of the beauty that is falling under the sword in our world.
When I take in the meanings of these experiences, my will does not sustain me. The need to reach beyond myself to see the hope that exists in the world is overwhelmingly clear.
Where is the hope amid this much suffering? I believe it is in the nurturance of the individual in the of sustenance of community. My experiences have shown me how communities, when well cared for, sustain their members during these times of failed self-sufficiency. The deepening community that results can bring about healing and positive individual transformations for all of its members. My respect for the leaders of these communities and for their commitment to reach beyond the limited capacity of their individual abilities is enormous. But the leaders are not the community. It is the collective wisdom of the individuals that make up the group that sustains their ability to lead. The leaders may bring the vision but it is the community that brings the empowerment to reach the vision. Interdependency is the process. Interdependency does not substitute the group for the individual but weaves the individual with the group in such a way at to increase the individual and the group’s tolerance for the task of living. One's individual commitment to being an active part of the process of one's community is the only thing that can sustain and transform the community as it changes to meet the needs of its individual members, the needs of the member's family and friends, and even the world. T.S. Elliot (1950/1980) wrote
What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community.
So, I charge us all--as teachers, clinicians, and researchers, as we go about the work of healing--to build strong sustaining communities; ones that will serve to prepare us to follow our individual paths. I believe that together, we can change the world for the better. To move forward, we must look with eyes that are willing to see, listen with ears that are willing to hear, think with intellects which are not bound to unproductive ways; and feel with souls that are willing to bear the transient pain of change. I believe this is a task too difficult to be done entirely alone; that it can only be done, not by the community, but in the context of community. The individual heart sees truth, but it is the revelation of it to society as a whole which leads to change.
I would submit that the journey is full of joy, hope, laughter, and expectation. I believe that together, we can change the world but we must know what we are doing. Together, supported with our clinical knowledge, research, study, patience, tolerance, and respect for the dignity of each person, we can create a new vision of society. While we will not certainly not remove trauma nor likely remove the hatred, evil, or violence that feeds it, we may learn to transform our encounters with these things into opportunities for growth for ourselves and for those whom we seek to heal.
FORWARD
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© B. Hudnall Stamm, 1997-1999