Vicarious Trauma

The term vicarious trauma (Perlman & Saakvitne, 1995), sometimes also called compassion fatigue, is the latest term that describes the phenomenon generally associated with the “cost of caring” for others (Figley, 1982). Other terms used for compassion fatigue are:

• secondary traumatic stress (Stemm, 1995, 1997)

• secondary victimization (Figley, 1982)

This factsheet describes the causes of vicarious trauma as well as some of the signs that indicate an individual may be experiencing it.