Date of Award
Fall 10-17-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Counseling & Psychology
First Advisor
Joe Mageary
Second Advisor
Susan Gere
Third Advisor
Heath (Hank) J. Brightman
Abstract
Secondary posttraumatic stress is a known occupational hazard for mental health counselors. Affecting approximately 49.5% of practicing counselors, it is a normal reaction to indirectly experiencing graphic stories (Lanier & Carney, 2024). Due to underdeveloped coping skills and limited experience working with traumatized individuals, counselors in training are especially vulnerable to its impact. Extant literature contains studies exploring the effects of secondary posttraumatic stress on graduate students, made and recommendations for self-care, resilience strategies, and therapeutic interventions to be integrated into graduate counseling curriculum to mitigate symptoms. Although studies demonstrated the effectiveness of these recommendations on symptom mitigation, no formal curriculum standards exist under accreditation programs such as CACREP, requiring counselor educators to include secondary posttraumatic stress education in counselor training curricula. (Sprang, Ford, Kerig, & Bride, 2018). Framed in general systems theory, feminist trauma theory, and the biopsychosocial model, this qualitative study sought to learn how seven counselor educators prepared graduate counselors in training to encounter secondary posttraumatic stress. This study revealed how participants understood the phenomenon, factors informing curriculum, and how they educated students. From these findings, a curriculum model emerged. Additionally, findings support formal secondary posttraumatic stress education for graduate counselor programs and proposed updates to policies, procedures, and practices that reflect the field’s advanced understanding secondary posttraumatic stress.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Colesanti, Brandi S. PhD, "Secondary Posttraumatic Stress Education within Graudate Counseling Programs" (2025). Counseling and Psychology Dissertations. 9.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/counseling_psychology_dissertation/9
Number of Pages
251
