Date
4-7-2026
Department
School of Health Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences (PhD)
Chair
Jennifer Roberts
Keywords
secondary traumatic stress, helping professionals, somatic experiencing, body-oriented therapies
Disciplines
Public Health
Recommended Citation
Guinta, Jillian Christie, "Using Somatic Experiencing to Mitigate Symptoms of Secondary Traumatic Stress in Female Helping Professionals" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8094.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8094
Abstract
This phenomenological and quantitative study explored the lived experiences of a dozen women within the veterinary, social work, and nursing communities and how secondary traumatic stress impacts their lives. Faced with unanticipated patient illnesses, facilitating compassionate end-of-life procedures, and rapidly moving from one emotional state to the next between patients, professionals are carrying tremendous unprocessed emotional burdens that can affect them physiologically and psychologically. Somatic Experiencing (SE) indicates tremendous promise in rehabilitating practitioners’ trauma-impacted nervous systems by offering techniques to release emotional stress and re-regulate the nervous system (Kuhfuß et al., 2023). This mixed-methods study explored the world of these professionals via interviews, surveys, and collection of sleep quality metrics, while testing a simple, body-based intervention of short meditations performed over four weeks. A pool of candidates meeting the criteria was selected to participate in the study. In addition to an initial assessment, progress was reviewed post-intervention as well as an additional four weeks later. Results derived from thematic analysis showed strong improvements in lifestyle, sleep quality, and stress levels, while survey analysis revealed a nearly 80% reduction of traumatic stress symptoms. Furthermore, a minimum effective dose was identified; all participants chose to adopt SE as a central self-care component in the weeks following the interventional period. While REM sleep analysis did not reveal significant improvements, changes in symptom scores demonstrated both statistically and clinically significant results. Areas for future research include longitudinal studies, increased sample sizes, sleep analyses with stronger devices, and application of youth and professional groups.
