Vicarious Trauma in Healthcare: When Other People’s Pain Starts to Feel Like Yours
If you work in healthcare, you’re trained to stay calm in a crisis. You’re taught to show up, do the job, and keep going — no matter how hard the story, how dire the outcome, or how overwhelmed you feel. Over time, though, the weight of what you witness can seep into your own body and mind.
You may find yourself thinking about patients long after your shift ends. You may carry their grief, fear, or trauma with you like it’s your own. This isn’t just stress or burnout — this may be vicarious trauma.
What Is Vicarious Trauma?
Vicarious trauma — also called secondary trauma — is the emotional residue that builds up when you’re exposed to others’ suffering, pain, and crisis over time. It can happen to anyone in helping professions, but is especially common in healthcare workers, social workers, therapists, and first responders.
You don’t have to witness a single, catastrophic event to experience it. It’s the slow accumulation of hearing hard stories, absorbing intense emotions, and witnessing human vulnerability day after day.
Signs You Might Be Experiencing Vicarious Trauma
You feel emotionally numb or detached from your own life
You have trouble sleeping, relaxing, or turning your mind off
You feel helpless, hopeless, or overly responsible
You struggle with irritability, anxiety, or tearfulness
You start to avoid certain types of cases or patients
You notice a loss of meaning, purpose, or joy in your work
You might feel like you’re "too sensitive" or "not cut out for this" — but in truth, your reaction is a sign of deep empathy and prolonged exposure, not weakness.
Why It’s So Hard to Talk About
In medical and helping professions, there’s often unspoken pressure to be resilient, composed, and endlessly self-sacrificing. You're not supposed to be the one struggling.
But here’s the truth: You can be deeply committed to your work and still be affected by it. Empathy is a strength — and it comes with a cost when it’s not acknowledged or supported.
Healing Is Possible (and You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job)
Vicarious trauma doesn’t mean you’re broken — it means you’ve been carrying too much, often alone.
Therapy can help you:
Process what you’ve witnessed without absorbing it
Reconnect to yourself outside of your role
Learn how to set emotional boundaries without shutting down
Build practices of rest, reflection, and reconnection
Develop sustainable ways to keep caring without burning out
If you’re a healthcare worker or helping professional feeling overwhelmed by what you carry, know that support exists — and that healing is possible.
I provide therapy for medical professionals and healthcare workers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington DC, and Vermont who are navigating burnout, vicarious trauma, and the emotional toll of caregiving work.