Trauma and Returning to Work: Women’s Lived Experiences and its Implications for Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling Mary Ballou Oyenike Balogun Galina Gittens Atsushi Matsumoto William Sanchez Abstract -- This study examined the experiences of fifteen women trauma survivors who were returning to work. All participants had histories of interpersonal violence and were receiving mental health counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and vocational services from a state vocational rehabilitation program. Using a feminist qualitative research method, the participants were interviewed and the data analyzed for common and emergent themes. The findings highlight their experiences with vocational counseling and counselors, and un- derscore significant factors that affected their return to work including health concerns, men- tal health treatment, family and community support, and accessing resources. Implications for vocational rehabilitation counselors include increased awareness of the challenges that influence mental health, career decision making, job readiness, and a need for examining in- stitutional barriers. T he National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (Black et al., 2011) found that more than one in three women (nearly 36%) have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Previous studies have documented the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social effects of interpersonal violence (Black, 2011; Breire, 1992; Courtois, 2004; Gillum & Bybee, 2006; Herman, 1997; McLean & Gallop, 2003; Murray, 1993; van der Kolk et al., 2005). Interpersonal violence is defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person or against a group or community that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation” (Dahlberg & Krug, 2002, para 1; qtd. in Center for Disease Control: Injury Prevention and Control. Some studies (Alexander, 2011; Banyard, Potter, & Turner, 2011; Swanberg, Logan, & Macke, 2005) have also begun to document the effect of interpersonal violence on women’s vocational health. As indicated by Mays (2006), interpersonal violence against women “needs to be under- stood in terms of the relationship to gendered power rela- tions and the historical, social, and material conditions that perpetuate and reinforce violence” (p. 151). The importance and benefits of work for people with functional challenges are well documented and have implications for women trauma survivors. On a clinical level, PTSD has been related to impaired functioning across a number of domains: Impaired functioning is exhibited across social, interpersonal, developmental, educational, physi- cal health, and occupational domains. In commu- nity and veteran samples, PTSD is associated with poor social and family relationships, absen- teeism from work, lower income, and lower edu- cational and occupational success. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 278 - 279) PTSD and negative work performance has been an empiri- cal finding in studies of trauma victims. As an example, findings from Wald (2009) demonstrated that “working adults with PTSD . . . had work performance deficits . . . in 25 Volume 46, Number 1, Spring 2015