"Women Working Together" in the Shadows of Sexual Violence Petit E and Sarah L Parry * Department of Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK * Corresponding author: Sarah L Parry, Senior Lecturer, Department of Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, Tel: +44(0)1612475796; E-mail: s.parry@mmu.ac.uk Rec date: July 03, 2017; Acc date: August 11, 2017; Pub date: August 14, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Petit E, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract The impact of trauma work upon practitioners is well documented. Experiences of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue are explored throughout the trauma literature. However, less understood are the emotional benefits of such work and the restorative nature of working in trauma settings. Keywords: Women; Sexual violence; Trauma; Resilience; Vicarious trauma Introduction A limited number of empirical studies have considered the opposite of vicarious trauma, known as vicarious resilience which is the ability to reframe difculties and develop new coping strategies as a direct result of learning from clients managing complex responses to trauma [1-4]. Although recent work, such as that of Israeli social worker and academic Orit Nuttman-Shwartz, has highlighted how shared trauma can facilitate posttraumatic growth, vicarious resilience and compassion satisfaction in 2016, little attention has been paid towards the potential positive psychological benefts of individual work with people who have experienced sexual violence. Terefore, a need was identifed to explore the experiences of women working to support clients following experiences of sexual violence. Brief Work on Sexual Violence In the UK, the continued austerity program has led to scarce funding for voluntary organizations as well as limited access to statutory services, which drives an even higher demand for community based support for people in need. For example, since 2010, 17% of specialist women-only services across the United Kingdom had to close due to lack of funding [5]. In 2015, 44% of women’s services were running part of their service without dedicated funding [6]. Consequently, clients are waiting longer for help, services are increasingly strained, and the result is ofen that both clients and service providers are operating in environments with little certainty or secure-base support [7]. Tese broad and powerful systemic factors directly impact the experiences of clients and therapists, which our study aims to capture through rich personal narratives. Discussion In order to ensure the richest exploration of qualitative accounts possible, personal narratives were sought from staf and volunteers of a feminist collective rape crisis service in England. Narratives can represent ways of making sense of the world and act as organizing forces in specifc socio-cultural settings [8]. Personal narratives are rich and multi-layered accounts of how individuals make sense of their work and the systemic infuences around them. Researching the experiences of individuals working in trauma services is important to shape trauma-informed service delivery and support staf and volunteers working with traumatic stories to enhance practitioner wellbeing and outcomes for clients [9]. Understanding the challenges and opportunities available when working therapeutically with survivors of sexual violence may ofer new strategies and solutions for service providers and clients. Tus far, the data tells a story of an organization that can rely on its committed and resilient staf and volunteers, to provide a person- centered service for women in need: “Women working together (…) can be incredibly supportive and that's not to say there's no competition. You can be open and honest, people sometimes burst out crying for whatever reason.” (Participant 3). Interestingly and perhaps surprisingly, participants were keen to share their experiences of working within an environment that is starkly diferent to mainstream healthcare services, rather than their individual work with clients. For example, the women-only aspect of the organization and the resulting sense of support and common understanding amongst staf and volunteers was ofen touched on as a positive aspect of their role. Tis raises interesting questions about the relationship between the environment at work and the quality of personal wellbeing of staf and volunteers. For instance, one participant explained how the stress of losing their funding impacted her relationships with colleagues: “I mean here, there was a point where it nearly went under and that was totally stressful um... And we weren't always-we were stressed all of us which made it more difcult to work together obviously...” (Participant 2) Overall, there appear to be important positive and negative aspects of direct work with clients in a sexual violence service, which impact the wellbeing of practitioners. Working with people who have been through traumatic life events can have a signifcant impact on practitioners’ own sense of self, their perception of post-traumatic growth and vicarious experiences of resilience. For example, one of the participants recounts how she learnt from working with service users: "Seeing other people go through really horrible stuf and show resilience in it and actually become a stronger person because of it, that Petit and Parry, J Trauma Treat 2017, 6:3 DOI: 10.4172/2167-1222.1000389 Short Communication OMICS International J Trauma Treat, an open access journal ISSN: 2167-1222 Volume 6 • Issue 3 • 1000389 J o u r n a l o f T r a u a m & T r e a t m e n t ISSN: 2167-1222 Journal of Trauma & Treatment