The world we live in – the effects of empathic engagement on us
We used to experience the turbulence of the world through morning papers or evening broadcasts. Today, we experience them instantaneously, in high definition, tucked inside our pockets.
As global conflicts, natural disasters, and geopolitical shifts dominate, a quiet phenomenon is taking hold: vicarious trauma.
How our understanding of Trauma has evolved
The word trauma has its origin in the Greek word meaning ‘wound’. Our early understanding of trauma centred on the combat veterans of the World Wars (Early 20th Century) displaying symptoms of panic, numbness, or inability to function often diagnosed with “shell shock” or “combat fatigue”.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was formally included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 1980 (DSM), marking a major shift where traumatic stress was officially recognised as a valid mental health diagnosis, largely due to the experiences of Vietnam veterans.
Initially, the focus was on single, catastrophic, or acute events that directly threatened life or safety. However, over decades of research since the Vietnam War our understanding of the impact of Trauma is far greater. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) (2014) acknowledges this in their far broader definition, which states ‘Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physical or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being’.
What is Vicarious Trauma?
Unlike direct trauma, vicarious trauma is the emotional residue of being exposed to the suffering of others. Originally a term for therapists and first responders, vicarious trauma has shifted from a professional risk to a widespread phenomenon which can affect anyone. This is largely driven by the unfiltered, real-time exposure to global conflicts via social media. In these moments, your brain doesn’t always distinguish between “witnessing” and “experiencing.”
The Geopolitical Weight
The current global climate is a perfect storm for vicarious trauma. The constant stream of “breaking news” creates a state of hypervigilance. You might find your worldview shifting, feeling that the world is inherently unsafe, or that humanity is beyond repair. This is not just “being informed”; it’s a fundamental shift in your internal sense of safety.
Potential signs that you are carry the weight could include:
- The “Numb” Effect: Feeling strangely indifferent or detached from news that should be upsetting.
- Intrusive Thoughts: Images from your social media appearing in your mind when you’re trying to sleep or work.
- Physical Tension: A heavy chest, headaches, or a constant “on edge” feeling.
- Cynicism: A growing belief that individual actions do not matter in the face of global chaos.
How does Counselling / Psychotherapy help?
Holding witness to the world’s pain is an act of empathy, but you cannot pour from an empty cup. To stay engaged with the world in the long term, you must first protect your own wellbeing.
Counselling can help manage vicarious trauma by providing a boundaried environment to process the emotional excess left by others’ traumatic stories. It offers a space to decompress, regain perspective, and address the profound shifts in worldview that often accompany secondary exposure to trauma. Counsellors may teach techniques like deep breathing and body scanning to help you stay present and prevent your nervous system from entering states of hyperarousal (anxiety) or hypoarousal (numbness). Counselling provides strategies to maintain “other-oriented” empathy (feeling for someone) rather than “self-oriented” empathy (feeling as them), which prevents emotional “flooding”. Counselling can identify when a client’s story triggers their own past “wounds,” allowing them to separate experience from identity.
Simply acknowledging that vicarious trauma is a natural “cost of caring” and not a personal failure reduces the shame and isolation that often worsen. In the book ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ by Van der Kolk (2014), which looks at mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma, Van der Kolk states ‘the goal of therapy is not to fix people but help people to acknowledge, “Oh, my God! That was terrible what happened and I need to take care of the wounds that I am carrying inside myself”.
By Russell Shepherd
Psychotherapeutic Counsellor
BA (Hons) QTS Dip.C Dip.PsyC
MBACP MNCPS (Acc.)