If you or your team listen to traumatic stories of persecution, flight and related abuses on a regular basis, effective emotional support is a prerequisite. Whilst professional psychological support would be the preferred option – for both refugee clients and service providers – this is often not a resource small and new NGOs can count on. Therefore developing team support and self-care methods are vital.

The following downloadable resources look at vicarious trauma, managing emotional stress, emotional responses to overwhelming need and self-care techniques.

•  Managing Emotional Stress (Asylum Access)
•  Practical Skills (a Training Module)- Reacting to Overwhelming Need (Asylum Access)
•  UNHCR Information on Vicarious Trauma
•  Organizational Prevention of Vicarious Trauma (Bell et al.)
•  Strategies for Reducing Secondary or Vicarious Trauma: Do They Work? (Bober and Regehr, 2006)
•  Vicarious Trauma and Burn-out: Strategies for Survival (Asylum Access)