@Amethyst, BRAVA to you! Woot! Woot! Way to go, girl!
I just wanted to add some things from my experience. I have a lot of trauma in my background, and yet I have always been in the helping professions. You CAN do this work, and in fact you are uniquely qualified to help others due to working through your own trauma. Many of us are in the helping/healing professions.
The important thing is to develop good self-care routines and to know when (and how) to push yourself, and when (and how) to say no and set boundaries. I use the metaphor/imagery of an invisible, semi-permeable filter that allows me to be authentic and human with my students/clients, but not take on their trauma or sadness as my own. It works for me, *as long as* I'm also practicing good self care routines (sleep, exercise, food, play, etc.) I am occasionally triggered afterward by my clients' stories or situations, but I deal with that in therapy.
I have worked with adult professional (graduate) students with disabilities for over a dozen years now. For 8 years that included students in masters and doctoral-level psychology programs. It has been my experience that students with a trauma background are more often triggered by material or encounters in the classroom than by work with real clients in practicum or internships. You *can* rise to the occasion when you have a client in front of you, and you can be more compassionate, understanding and effective for having gone through your own hellfire. Like you, most of my students receive glowing supervision reports/evaluations.
Good for you! Great job! You are doing such great work for yourself and the world. Now go celebrate!
