ABSTRACT
With the acceleration of global climate change, ongoing war and terrorism in many parts of the world, and the accompanying increase in man-made and natural disasters, many helping professionals, including social workers, often find themselves exposed to and practising in environments that could be characterised as traumatogenic. Such environments include areas that are host to tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, bushfires and volcanic activity, as well as those regions that are prone to war and chronic acts of terrorism. There are numerous recent examples of catastrophic events, both man-made and natural, just in the United States alone. Natural disasters include the California wildfires and mudslides, Hawaiian volcanic eruptions, and Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Sandy. Man-made calamities include the Las Vegas mass shooting which claimed the lives of fifty-eight people and wounded 851 others, the high school mass shooting of fourteen students and three teachers in Parkland, Florida, and the most recent terrorist attack in lower Manhattan involving a motorist driving a truck along the bike path, killing eight and injuring eleven. Some have even suggested that the 2016 presidential election has been a source of trauma for segments of the electorate, including therapists and their clients (Sherman, 2018; Solomonov and Barber, 2018) and others (Sondel et al., 2018).
