Clinicians, therapists, and social workers are just a few examples of providers exposed to traumatic stories in their daily work. In the course of doing their jobs, these helpers are often in the position of witness. Witnesses experience distress similar to what victims experience. Sometimes the distress comes from the stories clients tell them or directly observing their clients in interactions. Sometimes the distress comes from the people who administer the policies and procedures that affect clients. Often the distress derives from both sources. “Helpers” or providers may also have their own challenging histories. Current situations may trigger difficult historical moments, making it harder for providers to cope with contemporary stress.
This webinar provides an overview of empathic stress, moral injury, and microaggressions, and describes coping strategies for both providers and clients. Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, discusses the role of clinicians, therapists, social workers, and other “witnesses” and “helpers” and the impact that witnessing has on the behavioral health of the witness. In the second half of the webinar we look at sources of resilience and what Dr. Weingarten calls “reasonable hope.” There is time for Q&A throughout the webinar.
Watch the Webinar Recording
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Participants will be able to:
- Describe the four witness positions and daily sources of distress.
- Understand strategies to cope with their own distress while helping people who lived through traumatic experiences.
- Identify sources of resilience and reasonable hope in their own lives.
Presenters
Kaethe
Weingarten
Ph.D.
Director, Witness to Witness Program
Migrant Clinicians Network
Kaethe Weingarten, Ph.D. (she/her) directs the Witness to Witness (W2W) Program for MCN. The goal of W2W is to help the helpers, primarily serving health care workers, attorneys and journalists working with vulnerable populations. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1974. She has taught at Wellesley College (1975-1979), Harvard Medical School (1981-2017), where she was an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston and then Cambridge Health Alliance, and at the Family Institute of Cambridge (1982-2009). She founded and directed the Program in Families, Trauma and Resilience at the Family Institute of Cambridge. Internationally, she has taught in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and New Zealand, where she was a Fullbright Specialist. She has given over 300 presentations and been a keynote speaker at numerous local, national and international conferences. She serves on the editorial boards of five journals. In 2002 she was awarded the highest honor of the American Family Therapy Academy, the award for Distinguished Contribution to Family Theory and Practice. She has written about her work in six books (which she has authored or edited) and over 100 articles, chapters and essays. Her most recent book, Common Shock: Witnessing Violence Every Day- How We Are Harmed, How We Can Heal won the 2004 Nautilus Award for Social Change. Dr. Weingarten’s work focuses on the development and dissemination of a witnessing model. One prong of the work is about the effects of witnessing violence and trauma in the context of domestic, inter-ethnic, racial, political and other forms of conflict. The other prong of the witnessing work is in the context of healthcare, illness and disability. Her work on reasonable hope has been widely cited. In 2013, Dr. Weingarten and her husband moved to Berkeley, CA to be near their children and five grandchildren. There she resumed a dance and choreography practice she had let lapse for forty-five years. Since moving to Berkeley, she and her dance collaborator have been awarded five grants for their choreography with elder dancers applying a witnessing model in public spaces. In 2018 they performed at the Oakland Museum of California. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, baking and crocheting afghans.