Trauma and Countertrauma, Resilience and Counterresilience

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Treating traumatized patients famously takes its toll on the treating therapist. This process has most often been called “vicarious traumatization,” although other terms have been used. The author proposes a more interpersonal term, “countertrauma.” Although countertrauma is a common occupational hazard when working with trauma victims, it is rarely discussed in depth from a personal perspective. Drawing from the author's experiences working with sexually abused men over almost three decades, he tracks his emerging conflicts and reactions to his work. These constitute his own countertraumatic as well as counterresilient reactions to engaging intimately with patients’ trauma experiences.