How scientists exposed to other people’s trauma find support

After interviewing medical workers who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, Erin Smith, a disaster response researcher at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, noticed a change in her behavior. “I started having nightmares where I was buried under rubble and waking up gasping,” Smith says. She became anxious about being in crowded places and had intrusive thoughts about stories she heard during her research.

It was only when she saw a psychiatrist that she realized that these changes were signs of vicarious trauma, which can be experienced by people who are exposed to other people's injuries while working, including while conducting research.

Vicarious trauma is increasingly recognized as an occupational hazard for researchers, particularly among those whose work involves disturbing material. Repeated exposure to traumatic material increases the risk of vicarious injury, as does lack of psychological support and a history of trauma. Graduate students and early career researchers are especially vulnerable, Smith says, because they often lack support at work or during their studies from senior scientists.

There is evidence on how to reduce its effects. For example, research¹ published last month found that effective strategies include having a designated person to monitor the well-being of researchers and policies that include breaks or time off.

In this sense, Smith is among those calling for workplaces to introduce policies that provide greater emotional support and build resilience for researchers. “Despite its significance, vicarious trauma remains understudied in academia,” she says.

Setting boundaries

After receiving a graphic image of a severed foot from one of his sources in Myanmar, Ronan Lee, a genocide researcher at London's Loughborough University who is studying the ongoing massacre of Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar, began searching for literature on the best methods for treating mediated trauma. He realized that having a routine and setting boundaries between work and daily life were critical to managing the risk of injury. He says he will do work involving potentially traumatic material over a period of time, taking breaks for activities that calm or bring him joy. “I’m known for looking at pictures of alpacas on Instagram,” he adds. Lee says setting boundaries around his work is especially important because technology has made it harder for researchers to switch off. “I get sent graphic images every day,” he adds.

Millan Abinader, a gender-based violence researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, also sets physical boundaries between work and spaces where she can disconnect. She says her team does not do trauma-informed work, such as interviewing abused people or reading homicide case files, in their bedrooms or living areas of the home. When she was a student and didn't have a dedicated space at home, she worked in cafes or libraries instead. Abinader says she experienced vicarious trauma from her previous work as an advocate providing victim services for people experiencing sexual assault, domestic violence or human trafficking.

In the 2023 study²Abinader and her colleagues found that “sharing” work involving trauma material and then processing it helped reduce its negative effects, as did having a computer dedicated to trauma-related work and limiting such work to the same time each day.

Abinader says talking to teammates about traumatic content and other types of social support can prevent injury and build resilience. Formal support, such as check-ins during team meetings, and informal communication with colleagues outside of work can also be helpful. “It's normal for exposure to traumatic material to have an emotional impact,” Abinader says. “If you're hurt, it means your brain is working and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong.”

“There are also ways that universities, research institutions and other workplaces can help researchers reduce the risk of developing vicarious injury,” says Smith. “This includes training in emotional safety and trauma awareness, integrating researcher well-being into ethics review processes, and providing access to supervision, peer support, and mental health resources,” she adds.