Intervention in a shared traumatic reality: A new challenge for social workers

Shared traumatic reality refers to those situations in which social workers help survivors cope with the very traumas that they themselves have been threatened by and/or exposed to, given the reality that they live and work in the same community as their clients. This paper is an initial attempt to present the knowledge gathered to date about providing treatment in shared traumatic realities. It reviews the various definitions and uses of the concept in the literature, the negative and positive impact derived from working in these situations, the unique characteristics that define and might help explain the resultant consequences of working in them, and practical and future research recommendations.