{"title":"Therapists in Wartime: Holding Others' Trauma While Contending With Your Own.","authors":"Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari, Hilit Erel-Brodsky, Reut Ben-Kimhy","doi":"10.1002/jclp.23751","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study explores the experience of Israeli therapists who both worked with clients in emergency interventions during the third week following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and were themselves exposed, to one extent or another, to the terrifying events.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Open-ended questionnaires were completed by 201 therapists during the third week following October 7. Using thematic analysis, therapists' reports of the themes their clients raised in therapeutic sessions were compared with their reports of the hardships they themselves experienced as individuals and professionals during the same period. Drawing on the concept of shared traumatic reality, the study considers how close the themes are, and how challenging it is to cope concurrently with a traumatic reality that is experienced both directly and indirectly.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Seven main categories emerged from the responses to questions about both their clients and themselves: (1) uncertainty and worries about the near and more distant future; (2) overwhelming emotions; (3) physical sensations; (4) shattered meaning and loss of trust; (5) lack of routine; (6) self-preservation; and (7) shared trauma.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The findings shed light on early reactions to a shared traumatic reality in the period closely following the trauma itself, indicating that professionals find it hard to differentiate between the personal, professional, and national levels when exposed to a large-scale traumatic event they share with their clients.</p>","PeriodicalId":15395,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Clinical Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Clinical Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23751","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: This study explores the experience of Israeli therapists who both worked with clients in emergency interventions during the third week following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and were themselves exposed, to one extent or another, to the terrifying events.
Method: Open-ended questionnaires were completed by 201 therapists during the third week following October 7. Using thematic analysis, therapists' reports of the themes their clients raised in therapeutic sessions were compared with their reports of the hardships they themselves experienced as individuals and professionals during the same period. Drawing on the concept of shared traumatic reality, the study considers how close the themes are, and how challenging it is to cope concurrently with a traumatic reality that is experienced both directly and indirectly.
Results: Seven main categories emerged from the responses to questions about both their clients and themselves: (1) uncertainty and worries about the near and more distant future; (2) overwhelming emotions; (3) physical sensations; (4) shattered meaning and loss of trust; (5) lack of routine; (6) self-preservation; and (7) shared trauma.
Conclusions: The findings shed light on early reactions to a shared traumatic reality in the period closely following the trauma itself, indicating that professionals find it hard to differentiate between the personal, professional, and national levels when exposed to a large-scale traumatic event they share with their clients.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1945, the Journal of Clinical Psychology is a peer-reviewed forum devoted to research, assessment, and practice. Published eight times a year, the Journal includes research studies; articles on contemporary professional issues, single case research; brief reports (including dissertations in brief); notes from the field; and news and notes. In addition to papers on psychopathology, psychodiagnostics, and the psychotherapeutic process, the journal welcomes articles focusing on psychotherapy effectiveness research, psychological assessment and treatment matching, clinical outcomes, clinical health psychology, and behavioral medicine.