introduction

Since the 1970s, professional publications in the field of mental health, emergency services, and disaster management have abounded with reports and studies on the effects of trauma intervention on the responders. During the 1980s and 1990s, much of that literature focused on the psychological effects of trauma exposure on primary victims and among first respondersfirefighters, police officers, and emergency medical personnel. Simultaneously, as the number of natural and technological disasters was on the rise, studies on the effects of large scale disaster events upon both the victims and the disaster responders increased. Charles Figley (1995) provided a groundbreaking exploration and focus on those professionals who provide services to trauma survivors: crisis workers, trauma counselors, nurses, physicians, and other caregivers who become victims themselves of secondary traumatic stress disorder (STS) or compassion fatigue. A very small number of studies have further narrowed the focus of research to examine the psychological impacts of providing mental health counseling in the specialized context of large scale disasters (Bartone, Ursano, Wright, & Ingraham, 1989; Berah, Jones, & Valent, 1984; Frederick, 1977; Hodgkinson & Shepherd, 1994; Raphael, Singh, Bradbury, & Lambert, 1984; Winget & Umbenhauer, 1982; Wee & Myers, 1997).