Here are some tips and resources I’ve compiled over the years.
If you come across difficult content
- STOP reading/ reviewing content as soon as you’ve seen enough to make a decision.
- If you can’t make a decision: escalate to a manager.
- Take a break. Walk around the block, make yourself some tea, do some quick yoga exercises, look at cute cat photos, talk to someone.
- Work on something else for the rest of the day.
- Studies show that playing tetris within 1-2 hours of exposure can reduce longterm memory and flashbacks of harmful content.
- Focus on the solution and specific actions that you can take.
- Remind yourself that you are a witness, not a participant. Just putting the content in that context can be helpful.
- Project an ending: literally tell yourself how the “story” will end well: the person will be reported to authorities and won’t hurt anyone else, they’ve been removed from the site so they can’t harass anyone any more, etc.
Proactive tips
- Set up the right work environment and schedule
- Listen to yourself about what you can and can’t do every day
- Consider mindfulness and/or resilience training
- Celebrate the wins- making sure to fully appreciate a good job done helps balance out the tough times:
- Recognize when a colleague does something great
- Share happy couple’s success stories with the team
- Set mini-goals throughout the day and recognize when you accomplish them
Find other professionals to commiserate with. There are Slack and Facebook groups for moderation and support with other people who do similar work and understand what you do. This helps you know you’re not alone.
Resources/ Links
- ‣ — tons of great resources here
- ‣ - handling traumatic content
- ‣ — Resilience guide for handling child sexual abuse images (tech coalition, 2015)
- ‣ - NCMEC safeguard program (2015)
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Self Care Checklist
Physical Self-Care
___ Eat regularly (e.g. breakfast, lunch and dinner)
___ Eat healthy
___ Exercise
___ Get regular medical care for prevention
___ Get medical care when needed
___ Take time off when needed
___ Get massages
___ Dance, swim, walk, run, play sports, sing, or do some other physical activity that is fun
___ Get enough sleep
___ Wear clothes you like
___ Take vacations
___ Take day trips or mini-vacations
___ Make time away from telephones/ computers/ screens
Psychological Self-Care
___ Make time for self-reflection
___ Regularly go to therapy/ counseling (Employee Assistance Program / Counseling for info on how to do this with our benefits)
___ Write in a journal
___ Read literature that is unrelated to work
___ Do something at which you are not expert or in charge
___ Decrease stress in your life
___ Let others know different aspects of you
___ Notice your inner experience—listen to your thoughts, judgments, beliefs, attitudes, and feelings
___ Engage your intelligence in a new area, e.g. go to an art museum, history exhibit, sports, event, auction, theater performance
___ Practice receiving from others
___ Be curious
___ Say “no” to extra responsibilities sometimes
Emotional Self-Care
___ Spend time with others whose company you enjoy
___ Stay in contact with important people in your life
___ Give yourself affirmations, praise yourself
___ Love yourself
___ Re-read favorite books, re-view favorite movies
___ Identify comforting activities, objects, people, relationships, places and seek them out
___ Allow yourself to cry
___ Find things that make you laugh
___ Express your outrage in social action, letters and donations, marches, protests
___ Play with children
Spiritual Self-Care
___ Make time for reflection
___ Spend time with nature
___ Find a spiritual connection or community
___ Be open to inspiration
___ Cherish your optimism and hope
___ Be aware of nonmaterial aspects of life
___ Try at times not to be in charge or the expert
___ Be open to not knowing
___ Identify what in meaningful to you and notice its place in your life
___ Meditate
___ Pray
___ Sing
___ Spend time with children
___ Have experiences of awe
___ Contribute to causes in which you believe
___ Read inspirational literature (talks, music, etc.)
Workplace or Professional Self-Care
___ Take a break during the workday (e.g. lunch)
___ Take time to chat with co-workers
___ Make quiet time to complete tasks
___ Identify projects or tasks that are exciting and rewarding
___ Set limits with your clients and colleagues
___ Balance your caseload so that no one day or part of a day is “too much”
___ Arrange your work space so it is comfortable and comforting
___ Get regular supervision or consultation
___ Negotiate for your needs (benefits, pay raise)
___ Have a peer support group
___ Develop a non-trauma area of professional interest
Balance
___ Strive for balance within your work-life and workday
___ Strive for balance among work, family, relationships, play and rest
Source: Transforming the Pain: A Workbook on Vicarious Traumatization. Saakvitne, Pearlman & Staff of TSI/CAAP (Norton, 1996) via https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1616&context=msw_papers
The Potency of a Pause
By Katie Morrow
Sometimes, we just need to take a little break—to press the pause button and refresh ourselves with a mindful moment. If you find yourself feeling lost, scattered, stressed, frustrated, overwhelmed, anxious, or bored then chances are you will benefit from taking a short pause.
Here are three tiny practices that can have a surprisingly powerful effect.
Two Feet, One Breath
Two Feet: Let yourself feel your feet on the floor and the weight of you going down.One Breath: Pay as close attention as you can to the full duration of a single breath.
Go back to whatever you were doing (or, if you like, you can continue the practice for a few more breaths).
Three Relaxing Sighs
Let yourself take three long, slow, relaxing sighs. Make whatever noises feel right to you as you exhale. Notice if there is any difference between the sighs. Then carry on.
Bathe in Beauty
Look around the environment you are in until you notice something you find beautiful. (It doesn’t have to be conventionally beautiful or grand, maybe it is just a colour or the quality of light or the sound of leaves rustling.)
Spend a few moments enjoying it, appreciating it, soaking it in. Play with the idea that this beauty could permeate you. When you are ready, go back to whatever else you need to do.