VISTAS Online is an innovative publication produced for ACA by Dr. Garry R. Walz and Dr. Jeanne C. Bleuer of Counseling Outfitters, LLC. Its purpose is to provide a means of capturing the ideas, information and experiences generated by the annual ACA Conference and selected ACA Division Conferences. Papers on a program or practice that has been validated through research or experience may also be submitted. This digital collection of peer-reviewed articles is authored by counselors, for counselors. VISTAS Online contains the full text of over 900 proprietary counseling articles published from 2004 to 2017.
2016
Vicarious Trauma and Its Influence on Self-Efficacy.
Teri Ann Sartor
2016
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.