Supervising helpers who work with the trauma of sexual abuse

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion in this journal about counsellors’ experiences of vicarious traumatisation (Sexton, 1999 Sexton, L. 1999. Vicarious traumatisation of counsellors and effects on their workplaces. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 27(3): 393–403. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Dunkley & Whelan, 2006a Dunkley, J. and Whelan, T.A. 2006a. Vicarious traumatisation: current status and future directions. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 34(1): 107–116. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], b Dunkley, J. and Whelan, T.A. 2006b. Vicarious traumatisation in telephone counsellors: internal and external influences. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 34(4): 451–469. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). It builds on my previous paper (Etherington, 2000a Etherington, K. 2000a. Supervising counsellors who work with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 13(4): 377–389. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) that focused on the role of supervision in moderating the potential impact on helpers, and on the helping relationship, of working with survivors of sexual abuse. It examines the role of unconscious empathy and counter-transference in the development of vicarious traumatisation, and uses psychodynamic, narrative, neuroscience, and resilience literature, woven together with the author's reflexive engagement as a counsellor, supervisor, and researcher. The paper suggests that supervision, at its most useful for people working in this field, might best be focussed on the inter-relationship between the trauma itself, the person of the counsellor, the helping relationship, and the context in which the work is offered. It suggests ways that supervisors might support helpers to sustain themselves whilst working in the difficult field of abuse and trauma