Listening to other people's traumatic experiences : What makes it hard and what could protect professionals from developing related distress? A qualitative investigation

Livanou, Maria and Whittenbury, Kate and Basilio, Daniela Di (2024) Listening to other people's traumatic experiences : What makes it hard and what could protect professionals from developing related distress? A qualitative investigation. Stress and Health, 40 (3): e3353. ISSN 1532-3005

Abstract

Listening to people talk about their trauma experiences involves indirect exposure to trauma (IET) and can trigger emotional distress. Existing studies about the risk factors for post-IET distress have methodological limitations and reported inconsistent results, making their findings difficult to meaningfully synthesise. Also, most of them did not focus explicitly on trauma narratives and did not explore qualitatively the opinions and experiences of professionals who work closely with trauma survivors. The present study involved 36 professionals who worked with trauma survivors and used a qualitative design to investigate: (a) the perceived impact of the survivors' accounts, (b) the factors they deemed as important to be psychologically prepared for trauma accounts, and (c) their strategies for coping with IET. The semi-structured interviews conducted yielded rich data that was analysed thematically and organised in 13 subordinate themes, and 4 master themes. Listening to trauma narratives was thought to lead to emotional distress when it challenges the listener's ‘basic assumptions’ of safety and justice, when the listener has reduced sense of control and operates outside their ‘window of tolerance’, when empathic responses are too strong, and psychological preparedness for trauma-narratives is perceived as insufficient. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are discussed.