Impact of Crisis, Trauma, and Disaster Events on Mental Health

In the course of their work, counselors come face to face with crisis, traumatic experiences, and disastrous events. Although they may not be physically hurt, they are affected mentally and end up seeking counseling from their supervisors in order to recover from the experiences. The following two cases show how counselors are affected by crisis, trauma and disasters events.

While counselors are supposed to provide guidance to people recovering from traumatic experiences, they end up becoming victims of traumatic experiences themselves (James, 2008). They experience burnout and may be affected mentally. The case of Sam is a clear indication of how counselors can be affected by crises, trauma, and disastrous events in the course of their work. After being a Mental Health Disaster Volunteer for 3 years, Sam has seen a lot.

He has seen school shooting, car and train accidents, tornadoes, hurricane, fire, and other accidents. Although counselors are expected to have a high level of mental and emotional resilience, they are human beings and they are affected by witnessing traumatic experiences. After witnessing traumatic events, counselors are likely to suffer from vicarious trauma (McAdams & Keener, 2008; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2007). Although they may not be affected physically, they are affected psychologically and may experience prolonged crying and sadness, fear, nightmares and insomnia, disorientation and confusions, uneasiness, and others (Everly & Lating, 2004). In addition, traumatic events may trigger memories of past loss that could have taken place many years ago. Therefore, Sam is psychologically affected by what he has been seen for the last three years. He many not have been physically hurt in all those accidents and traumatic experiences but the mere fact of witnessing and counseling people who experienced the accidents has affected him as well. It is evident that Sam has been psychological exhausted as a result of traumatic events he has experienced in the course of three years has been a Mental Health Disaster Volunteer.

The worst trauma that has ever happened in my life is fire in the neighborhood. The fire started early in the morning when some people were asleep while others had already left for work and had to come back to salvage what was left of their belongings. It was very horrible witnessing mothers crying when their children were stuck two floors up. In the confusion to evacuate the building, some people had climbed upstairs only to find no way out. It was also horrible to see fire men carrying charred remains of people we had lived together. Although I was not physically hurt in the accident, I was affected mentally because I lost some people I had known for a long time. I spent sleepless nights thinking of the whole incident again and again. Images of crying mothers and wailing children calling for help two floors above rang in my mind for many months and they resurface in mind today every time I see a fire incident. Every time I see a fireman, I remember the charred body of children they carried out the building that morning. I felt uneasy until I had to relocate from that neighborhood. I had to seen counseling for 7 months to recover from the trauma.

In conclusion, counselors are psychologically affected by crisis, trauma, and disasters experiences. Although they may not be physically affected, they suffer from vicarious trauma that may lead to post-traumatic conditions. It is imperative that counselor should seek help from their supervisors.

obama sings al green heidi klum and seal ohare airport etta james songs east west shrine game haywire underworld awakening