Conceptual dimensions of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma

Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma are diagnostic labels sometimes applied to therapists who become traumatized following their work with victims of trauma. Four distinct conceptual frameworks are offered to better understand Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma: (1) The analysis of the Wounded-Healer metaphor and its connection to the topic of the use of self in therapy, (2) Contextual family therapy (Boszormenyi- Nagy) and the theory of systems, (3) Theravada and Zen Buddhism, with an emphasis on the concept of self and, 4) an exploration of the concept of suggestibility in relation to the "contagion" of symptoms phenomenon in CF and VT. These four approaches appear useful to formulate distinct models for Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma, to offer suggestions on the way these disorders might arise and develop, as well as to propose mechanisms underlying the "contagion" of trauma symptoms between therapists and their traumatized clients.