Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Kelly Chermack

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore intensive in-home counselors’ perceptions and experiences with vicarious trauma when providing in-home services to children. The constructivist self-development theory was used to explain how helpers develop vicarious trauma after exposure to traumatic stories of clients. A generic qualitative inquiry was the methodology for this study because it focused on illuminating the participants’ experiences, and offered a highlighted description of the participants’ awareness, consciousness, and understanding, which explored those personal experiences. The study consisted of 10 adults between the ages of 31 and 62. The participants were all African American. Semi structured interviews were conducted and data were coded and analyzed for emergent themes. The themes that emerged from the study included perception of intensive in-home counseling, positive intensive in-home experiences, challenging experience to intensive in-home counseling, emotional experiences, and coping strategies to manage the emotional impact of intensive in-home counseling. The results indicated that all the participants experienced the emotional impact of providing intensive in-home counseling. This study offered implications for positive social change as it allowed the participants to shed light on their experiences through personal accounts. Through the shared experiences of their work inside the homes of at-risk children, they will continue to inspire social change as contributors in the communities they serve. These results may also help inform best practices and workplace training among counselors who provide in-home services and those who train and support them.

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