Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress: Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others

Professionals who support people through crisis, loss, or trauma often enter the field because they want to help. But the same qualities that make someone a skilled helper—empathy, attunement, commitment—also make them vulnerable to secondary traumatic stress (STS).

This type of stress develops when we absorb the emotional pain and trauma stories of the people we serve. Left unrecognized, STS can quietly erode our energy, confidence, and well-being.

This post explores why helping professionals, including teachers, first responders, and therapists, are uniquely at risk, how to notice the early signs, and what tools can support renewal and sustainable, healthy practice.

Why Helping Professionals Are at High Risk

Secondary traumatic stress is not a sign of weakness or poor boundaries. It’s a natural, human response to witnessing suffering on a regular basis. Those most at risk often have:

High empathy

Strong emotional attunement helps clients feel safe—but it also means we feel more of what they feel.

Chronic exposure to trauma

Therapists, social workers, nurses, first responders, educators, and advocates often hear detailed trauma narratives week after week.

Heavy caseloads 

A constant flow of high-need clients leaves little time to decompress or reset the nervous system. 

Personal trauma histories

Past trauma can heighten vulnerability to STS, especially when clients’ stories mirror one’s own experiences.

Systemic barriers

Understaffed workplaces, long hours, and pressure to prioritize productivity can undermine the self-care professionals are encouraged to practice. 

These risk factors don’t mean someone shouldn’t work in a helping role. They mean we must take our own well-being as seriously as we take our clients’.

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Recognizing the Early Signs of Burnout

Secondary traumatic stress often begins subtly. Many helpers don’t notice symptoms until they become disruptive.

Some early signs include:

• Emotional exhaustion or numbness

• Difficulty staying present in sessions

• Irritability, overwhelm, or compassion fatigue

• Sleep problems, including nightmares or rumination

• Increased anxiety or dread before work

• Feeling detached from clients or loved ones

• Lower job satisfaction or questioning your purpose

• Physical symptoms such as headaches, tension, or fatigue

These signs are not personal failures—they are signals from the nervous system that it needs care, rest, and recalibration.

Tools for Prevention and Renewal

Secondary traumatic stress can be significantly reduced when helping professionals intentionally care for their own minds and bodies. Small, consistent practices make the biggest difference.

1. Build regular grounding and regulation into your day

Short practices between sessions or at break points in the day—deep breathing, stretching, sensory grounding, stepping outside for a minute—help your brain reset.

2. Create emotional boundaries

You can be compassionate without carrying every story home. Visualization, compartmentalizing exercises, and structured session endings can help you “put things down” at the end of the day.

3. Seek consultation and connection

Processing difficult cases or workplace situations with peers reduces isolation and helps normalize your experience. Consultation groups are both clinically beneficial and emotionally protective. Debriefs for first responders remain immensely important as a first step following a critical incident. 

4. Limit overload where possible

For therapists, rebalancing caseloads, spacing out trauma-intense sessions, or advocating for more realistic workloads can help prevent chronic overwhelm. For teachers, prioritizing to-do items and asking for support from parents or colleagues when possible can help prevent overload. 

5. Engage in activities that replenish you

Movement, creativity, nature, spiritual practices, and connection with loved ones all support healing. Think of these activities not as luxuries, but as essential components of ethical practice.

6. Work with your own therapist

Holding others’ pain is easier when you have a space to process your own emotional world.

Creating Sustainable Change

Individual self-care is important, but secondary traumatic stress is also a systemic issue. Sustainable change happens when organizations and leaders create environments that support the people who support others.

This may include:

• manageable caseload limits and expectations

• protected breaks during the workday

• regular supervision and/or clinical consultation

• mental health benefits that encourage early support

• a culture that values rest, boundaries, and community

When workplaces prioritize emotional well-being, helping professionals are better able to show up for clients with presence and compassion—and maintain a healthy, fulfilling career.

Final Thoughts

Secondary traumatic stress is an occupational hazard for anyone working closely with trauma, grief, or crisis. But it is also highly treatable and preventable with awareness, support, and compassionate care for ourselves.

You can continue doing meaningful, life-changing work without sacrificing your own well-being. By recognizing the signs early and building intentional practices of renewal, you are not only caring for yourself—you are strengthening your ability to care for others.