Vicarious Trauma and Its Influence on Self-Efficacy

Counselors work in a profession that requires they assist clients make meaning, reframe, re-story and/or cope with traumatic events. Such work and efforts with traumatized clients can, if left unchecked, result in the counselor entering a state termed “vicarious trauma.” This, in turn, may affect mental health professionals’ level of self-efficacy or perceived ability to counsel clients. A quantitative correlational design was utilized with mental health professionals (n = 82) to determine if the presence of vicarious trauma could impact their self-efficacy in working with traumatized clients. In this study, a multiple regressions suggested a statistically significant negative correlation, indicating that mental health professionals with higher levels of vicarious trauma had lower levels of self- efficacy.