Therapy for therapists highlights impact of child abuse
SAN ANTONIO – A man, charged with capital murder after a violent outburst leads to the death of a four-year-old boy. Another man, accused of sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s seven-year-old daughter.
These are just two of the horrific cases of child abuse we’ve reported in the past month – and the impact reaches far beyond the families involved.
Roy Maas Youth Alternatives runs emergency shelters for kids who were removed from dangerous homes. Counselors are on hand 24 hours a day, and years of stomach-dropping stories of abuse and neglect take their toll.
"It was a court document,” Renee Garvens with Roy Maas offers an example. “She had written the story of her father sexually abusing for many years. I read the entire piece, and then afterward I just sat and I just cried because I felt so sad for this little person that was just treated so horribly."
She can’t help but carry the emotions home.
"You look at your own children differently,” Garvens says. “You look at your own life."
She and her coworkers recognized they experience what’s called “empathy fatigue,” the stress of absorbing all that pain.
That’s Roy Maas hired someone to give therapy to the therapists.
"I've actually worked in a direct-care capacity too, so I definitely understand some of their day-to-day struggles,” staff therapist Eric Washington says.
His office is just down the hall. The service is free, and what’s said during sessions is kept private from the bosses.
"One thing I recommend people to do is take a minute to meditate in between transitioning from home to work, or work to home,” Washington says.
Since he came on board, leaders at Roy Maas say sick leave has gone down and connections are stronger.
"This allows them to engage in a real way with the kids because they're taking care of themselves,” the nonprofit’s director Bill Wilkinson says.
The therapy helps Garvens stay strong for such vulnerable children.
"To advocate for them,” she says. “To be the voice that they don't have themselves."
By EMILY BAUCUM