Love Note to theTherapists in the Trenches (and to Anyone Else Facing Adversity)

Today I attended an interesting and inspiring training by South Deerfield therapist Jackie Humphries, LICSW, about trauma stewardship.  For those unfamiliar with the term, it was coined by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, who wrote the book Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others. Aimed at an audience of therapists, the approach is about grounding yourself in strategies which will help you to be and feel effective even while working to help clients through very painful, traumatic experiences (and therefore hearing an awful lot sometimes about some of the uglier, more difficult parts of life).

I confess, I was initially a bit skeptical about whether I'd learn anything useful from the training. Having sat through many presentations about therapist burnout, vicarious traumatization, and compassion fatigue, I have heard the work of therapy described in ways that would make nobody in their right mind want to do it (client or therapist!), and heard veteran therapists as a group described as if we are primarily impaired professionals, our psyches damaged from our work in the trenches.

So what was refreshing about the trauma stewardship concept is that it presents therapy as worthwhile and therapists as capable of helping clients through trauma without sacrificing our emotional well-being in the process.  It asserts that "suffering can be transformed into meaningful growth and healing when a quality of presence is cultivated and maintained even in the face of great suffering" (Lipsky, 2009).  Lipsky explains trauma stewardship as "the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care".

During today's presentation, I was reminded of why I am a therapist, why I believe in therapy, and how it can be part of a healing, transformative process that positively impacts both therapist and client. So for all of you therapists and clients out there (and the many of us who've been both!), keep up the good fight. The demons we face, individually and collectively, are less daunting when we face them together.