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7 Warning Signs of Vicarious Trauma—and How to Protect Your Mental Health
“You can’t pour from an empty cup. Caring deeply for others means you must also care deeply for yourself.”
— Brooke Sprowl
Introduction: When Empathy Starts to Hurt
As healers, helpers, parents, therapists, or even friends, we often absorb the pain of those we love or serve. We listen, support, and hold space for others’ suffering—yet, over time, that emotional exposure can begin to take a toll on our own well-being.
This hidden cost of compassion is known as vicarious trauma—a psychological phenomenon that occurs when we internalize the trauma of others. It’s not a sign of weakness; it’s a human response to witnessing deep suffering. Whether you’re a therapist, nurse, first responder, social worker, or simply an empathetic person in relationships, vicarious trauma can slowly reshape your mind and body without you realizing it.
In this blog, we’ll explore the seven warning signs of vicarious trauma, how it differs from burnout or compassion fatigue, and most importantly—how to protect your mental health while continuing to care for others.
What Is Vicarious Trauma? A Hidden Cost of Compassion
Vicarious trauma (sometimes called secondary traumatic stress) refers to the emotional residue left behind when we empathically engage with others’ pain or distress. Unlike direct trauma, it doesn’t come from a single life-threatening event—it accumulates through repeated exposure to others’ trauma stories.
Psychologist Laurie Anne Pearlman, one of the first to define the term, explained that vicarious trauma can change how we see ourselves, others, and the world. It can erode our sense of safety, trust, and hope.
In essence, your empathy becomes both your gift—and your vulnerability.
Start Your Healing Today
At My LA Therapy, we believe that deep compassion shouldn’t come at the cost of your mental health. Our therapists are trained in trauma-informed care, somatic therapy, and nervous system regulation to help you rebuild resilience from the inside out. Schedule your session today and begin your journey back to balance, peace, and purpose.
How It Differs from Burnout and Compassion Fatigue
While these terms are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same:
Burnout arises from chronic workplace stress, exhaustion, and feeling ineffective.
Compassion fatigue refers to the emotional exhaustion that comes from caring deeply for others over time.
Vicarious trauma, however, involves absorbing another’s trauma narrative—it changes your internal landscape, your worldview, and sometimes even your nervous system responses.
Understanding this distinction is key. You can recover from burnout with rest and boundaries, but vicarious trauma requires deeper healing and emotional processing.
The Seven Warning Signs of Vicarious Trauma
Below are seven subtle—but serious—signs that vicarious trauma might be taking root.
1. Emotional Numbness or Overwhelm
You may find yourself feeling detached or emotionally blunted, even in moments that once moved you deeply. Alternatively, you might feel overwhelmed by emotion, crying unexpectedly or carrying others’ pain long after conversations end.
This emotional dysregulation is your nervous system’s way of saying: “I’ve had too much.”
2. Intrusive Thoughts or Imagery
If you replay distressing stories or imagine scenes of others’ suffering vividly, it may be a sign of vicarious trauma. These mental intrusions can feel similar to PTSD flashbacks—even though you weren’t directly harmed.
Your brain is wired to mirror others’ pain through mirror neurons, which can blur emotional boundaries over time.
3. Changes in Worldview
One of the hallmark signs of vicarious trauma is a shift in how you see humanity or safety. You might find yourself becoming more cynical, hypervigilant, or fearful. You may lose faith in people’s goodness or feel unsafe in everyday situations.
When you’re constantly exposed to trauma, your brain begins to generalize danger—a survival mechanism gone haywire.
4. Physical and Somatic Symptoms
Vicarious trauma doesn’t live only in the mind. It manifests physically through:
Chronic fatigue
Muscle tension or headaches
Stomach issues or nausea
Insomnia or nightmares
These are not “just stress.” They’re the body’s way of metabolizing absorbed pain—what trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk calls “the body keeping the score.”
(Source: The Body Keeps the Score)
5. Avoidance or Withdrawal
When empathy becomes painful, withdrawal can feel like self-protection. You might avoid certain clients, news stories, or even loved ones’ struggles. You may numb out through overworking, scrolling, or staying “too busy to feel.”
While understandable, avoidance prevents the emotional processing needed for healing.
6. Reduced Sense of Efficacy or Meaning
You might start questioning your purpose: “Am I even helping?”
This loss of meaning often appears in therapists, healthcare providers, and caregivers who feel that their efforts no longer make a difference. It’s a red flag that your emotional reserves are depleted.
7. Personal Relationship Strain
Empathetic overload can spill into your personal life. You may become irritable, distant, or less patient with those closest to you. Ironically, the very compassion that drives your work can leave you disconnected from your own emotional needs.
Ready to Reconnect with Yourself?
Healing from vicarious trauma means remembering your own humanity—your needs, limits, and capacity for joy. Reach out to a therapist who understands the weight of empathy and the power of transformation. Together, you can learn to hold space for others without losing yourself in their pain.
The Neuroscience Behind Vicarious Trauma
Neuroscience shows that empathy activates the same neural circuits as personal pain. Your brain can’t always distinguish between witnessing suffering and experiencing it. This is why listening to others’ trauma can cause real physiological stress responses—elevated cortisol, disrupted sleep, and hypervigilance.
Over time, without emotional regulation, these repeated activations lead to empathic distress, not empathic connection.
Learning how to stay empathic without absorbing is essential for long-term well-being.
For more on how trauma reshapes the brain, see this helpful overview from the American Psychological Association:
How to Protect Your Mental Health: Seven Strategies That Work
Healing from vicarious trauma isn’t about caring less—it’s about caring wisely. Here’s how to protect your empathy without losing your heart.
1. Build Reflective Awareness
The first step is noticing. Journaling, mindfulness, and therapy help you track your emotional state before it escalates. Reflection turns unconscious absorption into conscious awareness—a powerful shift.
2. Seek Regular Supervision or Consultation
For therapists, clinicians, and caregivers, supervision is not optional—it’s essential. Having a trusted colleague or mentor to debrief with prevents isolation and helps you process emotional residue constructively.
3. Prioritize Nervous System Regulation
Simple grounding techniques like deep breathing, progressive relaxation, or somatic experiencing can reset your nervous system.
Practice co-regulation—spend time with safe people who calm your body’s stress responses through connection.
4. Maintain Healthy Emotional Boundaries
Empathy does not mean enmeshment. It’s okay to feel with someone without carrying for them.
Visualize emotional separation between yourself and others’ stories. Boundaries protect your compassion; they don’t diminish it.
5. Reconnect with Joy and Creativity
Counterbalance exposure to trauma with experiences that replenish your sense of vitality—art, nature, music, movement, laughter. These acts restore neurochemical balance, increasing dopamine and serotonin, which buffer stress.
6. Limit Media and Emotional Overload
Constant exposure to distressing news or social media can perpetuate secondary trauma. Curate your media intake consciously—give your brain recovery time.
7. Engage in Your Own Therapy
Even therapists need therapy. Working through your emotional responses with a trauma-informed therapist helps you process residual pain safely.
At My LA Therapy, our clinicians specialize in trauma, empathy fatigue, and nervous system healing—helping you restore your sense of safety and self.
Reclaiming Emotional Resilience: Healing Through Connection
Vicarious trauma thrives in isolation—but healing happens in connection. Safe relationships are the antidote to secondary trauma because they re-regulate your nervous system and remind you that you are not alone.
Whether through therapy, community, or friendship, every authentic, attuned connection helps your brain rewrite its expectations—from hypervigilance to trust, from exhaustion to renewal.
Practical Tools to Support Ongoing Resilience
Grounding Exercise: Name 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste. It anchors you in the present.
Movement: Gentle stretching, yoga, or walking releases stored tension.
Connection Ritual: Debrief emotionally heavy days with a trusted friend or therapist.
Creative Expression: Journaling or art helps externalize absorbed emotions.
For more practical tools, visit the National Center for PTSD’s resources on secondary traumatic stress.
Conclusion: Compassion Without Collapse
Empathy is sacred—but it’s not sustainable without boundaries, reflection, and care.
Recognizing the warning signs of vicarious trauma is not a failure; it’s an act of self-awareness and strength.
By tending to your own emotional world, you not only protect your mental health—you expand your capacity to serve others with clarity, balance, and true compassion.
At My LA Therapy, we believe healing begins when you listen to yourself as deeply as you listen to others.
Because your empathy is powerful—and so is your right to peace.
Stay curious, stay compassionate, and know that your journey is uniquely yours.
And in that uniqueness lies your power.
In the meantime, stay true, brave, and kind,
– Brooke
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Brooke Sprowl is an industry-leading expert and author in psychology, spirituality, and self-transformation. Her insights have featured in dozens of media outlets such as Huffington Post, Business Insider, Cosmopolitan Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Spectrum One News, Mind Body Green, YourTango, and many more. As the founder and CEO of My LA Therapy, she leads a team of 15 dedicated therapists and wellness professionals. Brooke has been a featured speaker at prominent universities and venues such as UCLA School of Public Affairs, USC, Loyola Marymount University, the Mark Taper Auditorium, and Highways Performance Gallery, to name a few. With a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Welfare with a Mental Health Specialization from UCLA, a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from USC, and certifications in peak performance and flow science from the Flow Research Collective, Brooke has helped hundreds of prominent leaders and CEO’s overcome anxiety, relationship difficulties, and trauma and reclaim a sense of purpose, vitality, and spiritual connection. With 15 years of experience in personal development and self-transformation as a therapist and coach, she has pioneered dozens of original concepts and frameworks to guide people in overcoming mental health challenges and awakening spiritually. Brooke is the host of the podcast, Waking Up with Brooke Sprowl. She is passionate about writing, neuroscience, philosophy, integrity, poetry, spirituality, creativity, effective altruism, personal and collective healing, and curating luxury, transformational retreat experiences for high-achievers seeking spiritual connection.
