ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of personal and situational trauma on a practitioner’s capacity for ethical relations with self and others. The author’s personal experience of traumatic loss forms the basis for an exploration of self-harm and self-care. The chapter considers challenges, tensions and conflicts that can arise when working through intense emotional and psychological trauma. Different domains of experience – physical, relational, contextual, professional, ethical and spiritual – are introduced. Personal faith and beliefs and their potential to aid recovery are noted. Theory, practice and personal experience are interwoven to form a personal-professional narrative that highlights the complex and multidimensional nature of relational ethics and the challenges which helping practitioners face in relation to care of self in order that we might care for and facilitate others.
