Att försöka ta hand om sig är ju jätteviktigt … : En kvalitativ studie av hur kuratorer hanterar emotionella belastningar i arbetet med unga sexuellt utsatta

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about how counselors at youth centers deal with emotional burdens like to working with sexually exposed young people. Previous studies have shown that working with trauma can lead to secondary traumatization. There is a particular risk of secondary traumatization if you encounter repeated trauma stories. Counselors at youth centers meet young sexually exposed people for treatment talks.Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with six counselors from six different youth centers the study has observed several coping strategies that the counselors use. These strategies can be categorized into two different themes; individual coping strategies and coping strategies that the organization offers. The individual strategies can be categorized into emotion focused coping strategies and problem focused strategies. The study showed that the councelors mostly used emotion focused strategies like acceptance, distancing, avoiding and social support. The study also showes that the councelors used problem focused strategies like self care, having meaningful leisure time, demand-reducing strategies and setting limits. The study also showes that counselors don´t know of any target documents or routines for managing emotional stress at work.