Identifying the Signs of Vicarious Trauma Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, a trauma worker, educator and author of Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide for Caring for Self While Caring for Others, has spent years working in the field of trauma, crisis and natural disasters and has identified 16 common signs of a trauma exposure response. We acknowledge and thank her for her expertise, commitment and partnership. For more information, please visit www.traumastewardship.com.

Do you ever experience any of the following?

• Feeling helpless and hopeless "There is no sense in trying to fix the problems I see in the world."
• A sense that one can never do enough "There is no way that I can ever get all the work done that I should."
• Hypervigilance "I must keep my guard up at all times to keep myself and those around me safe."
• Diminished creativity "I can't seem to come up with even a single possible solution to this problem."
• Inability to embrace complexity "There is good and bad, right and wrong."
• Minimizing "This person is making a bigger deal of her experience than it really is."
• Chronic exhaustion/physical ailments "I wake up tired every day."
• Inability to listen/deliberate avoidance "The best part of my day is when I don't have to do my job."
• Dissociative moment "Can you repeat that? My mind was somewhere else."
• Sense of persecution "My superiors are trying to make my job harder."
• Guilt "I shouldn't take this vacation. There is so much work to be done while I'd be away."
• Fear "Everyone who lives in that part of town is dangerous."
• Anger and cynicism "Someone has to pay for this situation."
• Inability to empathize/numbness "Feelings? What feelings?"
• Addictions "I can't start this afternoon's meeting until I grab a cup of coffee."
• Grandiosity: an inflated sense of importance related to one's work "The work that I do is more important than that of anyone else that I know."

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