Abstract
D.Cur.
It was established during research that I have done for my master’s degree that therapists experience secondary traumatisation in a specific private psychiatric clinic when they listen to the trauma filled stories of their clients. This often led to the therapist’s personal and professional disintegration.
The main purpose of this research was to describe, operationalise and evaluate a model for the advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner to facilitate the mental health of therapists who experience secondary traumatisation in a specific private psychiatric clinic in South Africa.
I used a qualitative, descriptive, contextual and theory-generating research design to achieve the above purpose. The development of the model consisted of four steps.
Step one consisted of concept analysis that included the identification, classification and defining of the central, essential and relational concepts in the model. During concept analysis, facilitation of wholeness was identified as the most relevant concept for the model instead of mental health. It was evident that personal disintegration became the specified concept and focussed aspect in terms of secondary traumatisation in this research project.
Step two consisted of a description of how the identified and defined central concepts interrelate with each other as part of the model.
During step three, the model to facilitate wholeness in therapists with personal disintegration due to secondary traumatisation in a specific private psychiatric clinic was described. The structure of the model was described in terms of its purpose, assumptions and context. Definitions of the central concepts, as well as the relationship statements between the central and essential concepts, were described. The structure of the model was also described in terms of a visual representation that included the dynamic and interactive narrative process of deconstruction, choosing of alternatives and celebration.