The Vicarious Trauma and Resilience Podcast

Why does your team stay silent when you invite them to speak, only to have the real conversation somewhere else?In this episode, Dr. Jenny Hughes explores why clinicians hesitate to speak up and how leaders can create the conditions for more honest, productive team conversations. Learn how to ask better questions, work with silence, and use the five-rung Engagement Ladder (body, write, pair, table, room) to make participation less intimidating.Jenny also explains the importance of leader inclusiveness, going first, and bringing vicarious resilience into clinical supervision.RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEThe BRAVE Method: https://www.braveproviders.com/speakingThe BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective: https://www.braveproviders.com/braveFree Vicarious Trauma Tracker: https://www.braveproviders.com/vicarious-trauma-trackerRelated episode on the leader's role: https://youtu.be/0u7AZYxZxnYRESEARCH & CITATIONSBlume, B. D., Ford, J. K., Baldwin, T. T., & Huang, J. L. (2010). Transfer of training: A meta-analytic review.Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House.Carello, J., & Butler, L. D. (2015). Practicing what we teach: Trauma-informed educational practice. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 35(3), 262-278.Cooper, K. M., Downing, V. R., & Brownell, S. E. (2018). The influence of active learning practices on student anxiety in large-enrollment college science classrooms. International Journal of STEM Education, 5, 23.Detert, J. R., & Edmondson, A. C. (2011). Implicit voice theories: Taken-for-granted rules of self-censorship at work. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 461-488.Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.Lyman, F. (1981). The responsive classroom discussion: The inclusion of all students. In A. S. Anderson (Ed.), Mainstreaming Digest (pp. 109-113). University of Maryland College of Education.Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941-966.

Vicarious trauma isn't burnout, and the distinction matters for leaders supporting trauma-exposed teams.In this episode, we explore how vicarious trauma develops through sustained empathic engagement with trauma, how it differs from burnout, and why organizational culture and support matter more than simply focusing on individual self-care or caseloads.We also look at what research suggests about evidence-based trauma treatment, vicarious resilience, compassion satisfaction, and staff retention, before getting practical about how organizations can help staff identify, install, and enhance vicarious resilience within the structures they already have.Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeThe Trauma Therapist Trauma Response YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/myTvmlLgd1MThe Free Vicarious Trauma Tracker - https://www.braveproviders.com/vicarious-trauma-trackerThe BRAVE Method - https://www.braveproviders.com/speakingThe BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective - https://www.braveproviders.com/brave

Staying present with a client’s trauma means learning to stay present with yourself, too. But what happens when a client’s story activates something in your own body, and how do you remain grounded without shutting down what you’re feeling?Trauma psychologist Dr. Jenny Hughes sits down with Lynn Fraser, founder of the Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma, to explore how nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, and embodied practices shape the therapeutic relationship. Together, they discuss recognizing signs of activation, building the capacity to stay with difficult emotions, and creating the conditions for safety and connection. Because being a regulated therapist isn’t about being perfect. It’s about learning how to return to the present.Resources & ConnectionsJoin the BRAVE Trauma Therapists Collective: https://www.braveproviders.com/braveLearn more about BRAVE: https://www.braveproviders.comConnect with Lynn Fraser: https://LynnFraserStillpoint.com

When therapist spaces are supposed to feel safe, a dismissive comment can land harder than we expect.So, what happens when the people we expect to understand us instead leave us feeling judged, exposed, or unsafe?In this episode, Dr. Jenny Hughes reflects on a rupture in a local therapist community, the shame and shutdown it triggered, and the effort it took to respond from regulation rather than reaction. She also considers the difference between spaces that critique and spaces that genuinely hold us, and why therapists deserve that same care from one another that we offer our clients.Resources mentioned in this episodeThe BRAVE Traum⁠⁠⁠a Therapist Collective: https://www.braveproviders.com/braveBRAVE YouTube Channel: ⁠Here⁠

When a good trauma therapist leaves, the resignation is rarely the beginning of the story. It is often the visible end of months or years of professional isolation, emotional invalidation, administrative overload, limited clinical growth, moral injury, and systems that were never designed to protect the people doing the work.This episode looks beyond burnout to the conditions that gradually make staying unsustainable, and asks a more useful question: What would change if we noticed the slow creep before a therapist reaches the last chapter? For trauma therapists and leaders alike, this is a conversation about moving beyond individual self-care and toward the systems, relationships, and infrastructure that make sustainable trauma work possible.Resources mentioned in this episodeFree Vicarious Trauma Tracker: https://www.braveproviders.com/vicarious-trauma-trackerOrganizational training & speaking: https://www.braveproviders.com/speakingThe BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective: https://www.braveproviders.com/