Preventing Secondary Trauma and Compassion Fatigue with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

04.25.2022 - By Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Forrest Hanson Play

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With so much suffering going on in the world that’s worthy of our compassion and engagement, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by it even as we have the desire to remain engaged. Secondary traumatic stress is the stress we are exposed to when we interact with other people’s stress, and it manifests at both an individual and societal level. When not managed effectively, it wears us down and diminishes our ability to contribute in a positive way.

On this episode of Being Well, Forrest talks with trauma expert Laura van Dernoot Lipsy about how we can better manage secondary traumatic stress, how to avoid burnout and overwhelm, and what it looks like to stay hopeful and live fully in the face of daunting societal challenges.

About Our Guest: Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is the founder and director of The Trauma Stewardship Institute and author of Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others and The Age of Overwhelm. She is a widely recognized pioneer in the field of trauma exposure and has worked locally, nationally, and internationally for more than three decades. Laura is also the host of Future Tripping, a podcast about navigating overwhelm.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

1:35: Laura’s personal experience

4:10: How secondary trauma shows up for people

6:45: Martyrdom and the responsibility of organizations to create sustainable environments

10:30: Concern with how trauma is normalized within communities

14:10: Internalized oppression and overwhelm in the broader culture

17:40: The broader systemic context and the ineffectiveness of burning yourself out

21:50: The necessity of taking breaks

26:40: How to feel okay taking time to unplug from discourse on charged topics

33:35: Differentiating between spheres of control and acknowledging grief

37:45: Finding ways to stay hopeful

40:35: What Laura is grateful for and stressed about

44:35: Recap

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