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Work Related Stress and Coping Mechanisms

in Hungarian Victim Service Provider Organizations

Albulena Shabani

Abstract
A lot of research has been focused on which needs and services should be provided to victims. In contrast, there is often little attention paid to the emotional needs of service providers. Different non-governmental organizations develop various policies with the aim of supporting employees' stress management while working directly with clients. Difficult cases may cause aversive feelings such as anger and anxiety among service providers. When there is no specific program or practice for treating these feelings, more serious problems may occur. The main objective of this research was to analyze the programs that are being practiced in different NGOs in Budapest which support victims of domestic violence and/or sexual abuse. In order to understand the Hungarian practices of self-program or supervision for their employees, three interviews were conducted in different organizations such as: NANE and the Association against Patriarchy. Based on three interviews, I found that there is no specific self-care program in Hungarian NGOs; social support is one of the main coping mechanisms of the staff and the role of supervision is supported by all three interviewees.
Authors acknowledgements. Young Researchers Program was a great opportunity for me to become acquainted with the culture of Hungary, its traditions, judiciary system and the role of civil society in changing the attitude towards domestic violence. I had the chance to speak and collaborate with important NonGovernmental Organizations that work in the eld of women's rights protection. Also, it was a great pleasure to participate in the First Hungarian Womens Congress as well as in some events in the 16 Action Days Against Violence on Women. The visit to the Womens Centre in Miskolc was a very interesting and enthusiastic experience where women shared their experiences in working with women. This brings me to the moment of expressing my gratefulness to all people, and there are many, who contributed to the writing of this paper, but I must acknowledge, rst of all, N!Kp Organization for all its support, particularly Erika Schmidt who supported, organized and accompanied me in these meetings. Without her, all these meeting with different people from different NGOs as well as my participation in important events would have been impossible. My forever debt to a great person, Tibor Meszmann, goes far beyond mere thank you- he supported and helped me during all the time with suggestions, advice and restructuring of this paper, both technically and academically. Without his support this research could not have been written. Of course, I would like to thank the representatives from NANE and Patent who agreed to participate and contribute to my paper work.

1. Introduction
Working on a daily basis with women and children who have experienced domestic violence can be a difficult experience. Working in a "helping profession, listening to different traumatized stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as being exposed to traumatized persons triggers spontaneous feelings of sympathy and a strong impulse to help. A professional would make every effort to ease the persons suffering and guarantee them a secure life. However, little attention is paid to risks which these professionals face in this process. DSM cal V (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder) states that an extreme traumatic stressor can involve direct personal experience of an event that involves threat or injury, or others threat to ones physical integrity, or witnessing an event that involves death, injury or a threat to the physical integrity of another person, or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm or injury experienced by a family member or close associates (Jeste et al. 2013: 424). This definition shows that not just the survivors have the effects of trauma experience and symptoms but have also been shown to effect those that help the survivors such as psychologists, social workers, etc. (Baird 1999). Listening and helping the survivors of domestic violence can lead to psychological consequences in people offering services for them. People who have experienced domestic violence often have difficulty with self-regulation, which may be expressed in problematic behaviours such as verbal or physical fights and substance abuse. So, staff who is being exposed to such behaviours can experience negative effects of these, known as secondary traumatic stress and burn out (Madsen et al. 2003). In cases where there is no appropriate supervision, therapeutic awareness sessions or support from other sources, these effects can have a negative impact on the professionalism of people working with victims of domestic violence. They may lose the perspective of understanding and have the attitude of blaming victims. What is more, the risk of losing professional detachment and breaking professional limits is high (Pross 2000). I work as a psychologist in the Centre for Protection of Women and Children in Prishtin. The Centre serves those who have experienced domestic violence and/or have been trafficked for more than one year. During this period, I have faced different challenges starting from feelings of helplessness, stressful situations during discussions with clients, aggressive clients, etc. I have had nobody to
Hungarian organizations working with victims of domestic violence NANE is focused working on ending human rights violations and threats of Violence Against Women (VAW) and children through advocacy, personal support services and public education. Their goal is to facilitate and promote changes in the laws and legal regulations so that they will be better able to provide legal protection for women against discrimination and violence; to improve legal practice so that it will stop discriminating against women; to empower women to be better able to represent their own issues and to be better able to name their realities. These goals are achieved through the following activities: -A hotline with trained volunteers available to support women and children who are exposed to physical, sexual, economic and emotional violence -Help-line information for young women planning to work abroad, to promote the prevention of trafcking in women -Advocating for, and introducing, lawamendment proposals where current regulations need enhancement regarding equity, litigating power of women and children, and protection of women's rights -Providing legal support (counselling and, depending on nancial means, representation) for battered or otherwise abused women -Cooperating with governmental and nongovernmental institutions to improve policies -Holding training sessions for groups of professionals, students, and volunteers on diverse topics ranging from non-discrimination and women's rights to VAW, to gender equality and equal opportunities -Monitoring, evaluating and researching the implementation of legal regulations and the realization of equity and non-discrimination rules, and researching the actual situation of women and the problems they face See also http://www.nane.hu/english/index.html

receive emotional and professional support from, at least, to tell me whether I was working in the right or wrong direction. In my opinion, I could have learned and helped clients more effectively if I had a supervision or selfawareness therapy during this time. Therefore, my personal and professional experience made me choose this topic to research Hungarian organizations working with women who have experienced domestic violence. I was especially motivated to learn how workers and volunteers at these organizations cope with stress on a daily basis. The aim of my research focused on three main domains: the most stressful situations that employees face during working with clients of domestic violence;

PATENT is a non-governmental organization with the goal of providing legal aid to women who have experienced domestic violence. In collaboration with NANE, they have developed the project The Integrated Client Survey Model" which attempts to resolve the problems of women by a close cooperation amongst the experts of different elds, respectively by a lawyer and social worker. This project is based on the cooperation of three equal persons: lawyer, social worker and a victim who has an important role in management their case. See also: http://patent.org.hu/english

employee perceptions related to experiencing some signs of burnout presence and quality of professional supervision or any self-care program and its importance. Two of the main organizations which operate in Budapest were identified and three of their representatives were interviewed: one person from Patent, one volunteer and one regular employee from NANE. These interviews took place in November 2013. In order to gain more information, I conducted semi-structured interviews. The main criteria in my selection of the interviewees were finding people from organizations which work directly with victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse. There are in fact just two organizations dealing directly with victims in Budapest. While I also had to define the questions and the focus of my research during my one month-long stay in Budapest, I managed to conduct altogether three interviews with people from the two organizations in Budapest. For descriptive and analytic reasons, the same questions were posed to all the interviewees (see questions listed at the end/appendix/text box). The interviewees first of all were asked to briefly introduce their organization and role in it. All of the interviews were recorded and transcribed. This paper is divided into five sections: the following section introduces the main concepts related to experienced stress working with battered women. The third section reviews the relevant literature. The fourth part describes the main answers to the questions, and in the final concluding part I summarize my findings and I formulate recommendations.

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2. Main Concepts
Three main concepts in the literature related to feelings of staff caused by working with victims of domestic violence are: vicarious traumatisation, secondary traumatic stress and burn out. In the following, l will speak briefly and give a description regarding the nature of stress, burnout as well as stress coping mechanisms.

2.1 Stress In every profession employees experience stress due to different factors or stimulus that occur within the work environment. This issue has long captured the attention of researchers and managers who aim to understand the nature of stress as well as a means of coping with it. So, what is stress? There are several definitions which try to explain what is included within the concept of stress. According to Mc Pheat (2010) stress is a natural, physical response to our perceptions of stimulus. It has an evolutionary purpose which is the need to protect ourselves and the innate fight or flight aspect of our nervous system. On the other hand, according to Jackson (2005) stress is a combination of physical and psychological reactions to events that challenge or threaten us. There are two different types of stress: acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress is the most common form of stress, and includes moments of sharp reaction which occur immediately after a stimulus occurs. The symptoms may include the following symptoms such as a brief jump in heart rate, an increase in blood pressure, and sweating, among others. When this kind of stress is repeated over time chronic stress may occur. A person suffering from choric stress may display symptoms such as radical mood swings, severe displays of anger, confusion, overeating, depression or other mental disorders. If the chronic stress is not treated, there is a high risk of developing burnout.
Active Strategies (Folkman&Lazarus, 1985; Carver, 2000) Confrontive Coping describes aggressive efforts to change the situation and triggers and risk-taking." Seeking social support describes efforts to seek informational and emotional support." Problem solving describes deliberate problem solving to change the situation with an analytic approach. Positive reappraisal describes efforts to create positive meaning by focusing on personal growth. Passive Strategies " Distancing describes when a person fails to connect with clients' lives and minimizes the signicance of the situation. Self-controlling describes efforts to regulate feelings and actions. Accepting responsibility describes the awareness of a person regarding their role in the problem and the effort to put things right Escape-avoidance describes wishful and behavioural efforts to escape or avoid problems.!

Burnout is conceptualized as a psychological syndrome in response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stress on the job and is most widely defined by the dimensions of exhaustion, depersonalization and inefficacy (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter 2001). Exhaustion is defined when a person is drained and depleted; depersonalization refers to feeling emotionally distant from clients or when a person fails to connect with clients' lives and inefficacy is when a person does not meet work related goals. 2.2 Burnout

Burnout develops gradually due to accumulation of stress and the erosion of idealism resulting from intensive contact with clients and is characterized by fatigue, poor sleep, headaches, anxiety, irritability, aggression, hopelessness, cynicism and substance abuse (Levin 2004). According to Parker (2007) some of the factors that contribute to burnout for employees may be the following: Lack of personal control when persons have little autonomy to decide what needs to be done in their job Lack of recognition when workers feel that their work is not being recognized and valued by others Ambiguity role where they do not know what is expected from them, etc.

2.3 Coping mechanisms According to Folkman and Lazarus (1984) coping mechanisms are defined as cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage external and/or internal demands, which are perceived as a threat to an individual. So, the purpose of coping mechanisms is not to master a demand but rather to tolerate, overcome or ignore a demand. Also, coping mechanism refers to the different strategies a person may use to cope with a problem. There are two main strategies of coping, which Folkman and Lazarus divide into two categories: active and passive.

2.4. Supervision In this research, supervision is defined as discussing the daily cases with a professional person who is trained as a counsellor and supervisor with the aim of identifying the solutions and working for the best interest of the client as well as for the worker (Coopeland,2005)

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3. A Brief Review of Research Related to Stress and Coping Mechanisms in Working With Clients

The aim of the research conducted by Karen & Salahudin (2007) was to measure the level of stress, perceived social support, coping self efficacy and coping mechanisms of people working directly with victims of domestic violence in shelters. The sample consisted of 123 female shelter workers who filled in the Job Stress Index (Smith and Sandman 1988) which had in total 82 items, such as: time pressure, lack of achievement, etc.1 The findings of this research showed that high levels of time pressure and low levels of self-efficacy for being productive at work were identified as predictors of emotional exhaustion. However, the findings did not indicate high levels of burnout (20% of them suffered from levels of emotional exhaustion. Social support was perceived as an important tool in coping with stress and 8% of them, considered the training or workshop related to stress very helpful. The coping styles and emotional exhaustion, particularly of burn out, were analyzed in 1, 110 physicians in Western Canada (Wallace & Lemaire 2010). Also, a comparison between the efficiency of four coping styles with different situations in workplace was analyzed. The findings of the research show that the physicians use denial coping strategy when they experience work overload and difficult patient interactions. However, coping strategies were found to depend on personality type and the type of stress encountered. It is important to recognize which strategies of coping employees use in working with victims of domestic violence because those strategies can determine the level of stress and burnout at work. For instance, a research conducted by Brown and Obrein (1998) found that active coping, positive reinterpretation, growth and planning were related to low levels of burnout in shelter workers.2 In other words, active coping strategies were related to low levels of depersonalization and high levels of personal accomplishments (Anderson 2000). Whereas, workers who use avoidant coping strategies were emotionally exhausted and distanced from their clients and also experience fewer positive feelings about their work accomplishments (Baker, Obrein & Salahuddin 2007)

4. Stress and Coping Mechanisms: Responses of the Interviewees

During the interviews, I felt generally comfortable posing additional questions as well as clarifying things that were not familiar to me. However, with the first interviewee (Patent 1) I could not make a connection and could not establish an interview relationship, which resulted in a structured interview (where I asked just the questions prepared before and without any other questions depending on the flow of the interview). One important factor that should be taken into account is that other people
1

The participants could answer the questions by selecting N does not describe my job; S sometimes describes my job; Y yes, it describes my job.
2

See also Baker et al. 2007

participated in the interview process (interviewees children and two of my colleagues were present). On the other hand, the other two interviewees (NANE 1 and NANE 2) were open, willing to contribute to the research and gave me the opportunity to ask additional questions later on. In order to campare their responses and analyze the factor and self-care programs, the same questions (in total eight) were made to all of the respondents . (see appendix-text box) Responses will be described and interpreted as the "Patent 1", "NANE 1, and "NANE 2. In other words, I will present firstly the question and the answers, the second question and the interviewees answers, and so on. In some of the described answers, I have included my own personal impressions and comments taking into account the environmental conditions and the context during the time that interviews took place such as possible influences on their responses, background experiences etc.

4.1. Experiencing and coping with stress, individually.

Answers to the question: Which are the situations where you feel more stress and what do you do?

The interviewees Patent 1 and NANE 1 claimed that the most stressful situation in their work is dealing with systematic problems stemming from the judicial system. As Patent 1 stated, for example, it is disheartening to visit the court where a judge is uninterested in understanding a situation, and can lead to feeling that the work is not meaningful and rather a part of a never-ending fight. Another stress producer is the failure of professionals to complete their jobs properly and according to expectations. NANE 2 said that, in general, working in her particular organization is not stressful. On the contrary: she said it was a safe environment, but maybe one of the most stressful situations can be when you train new volunteers and in the end of the training they leave because they think that feminist approach is just too much for them. These situations (circumstances) triggered the interviewee experiencing stress due to rejection in working with victims of domestic violence after the training held based on feminist approach. This is a situation when she feels stressed and wonders whether she could explain well and clearly advocate the feminist approach. As was stated by both interviewees of NANE, this organization works based on the feminist perspective and this approach is being explained in all of trainings delivered to its volunteers who are willing to work as volunteers with women who experience domestic violence. In my opinion, there were different factors for the three interviewees in which they experienced stress depending on the nature of their work. Nevertheless, one should keep in mind that the three of them are working with victims of domestic violence but in different domains. In my opinion, it is very important to analyze which are the attributions regarding the stress and its influence in emotions. For instance, those employees who work more in advocacy and protection of victims,attributed stress to the general political system. On the other hand, those who work directly with victims experience more internal stress which means they wonder whether they are able to effectively explain the mission and goal of the approach in which they believe and work. According to Lazarus (1991), the interaction between the person and environment causes stress. Whereas, Weiners locus of causality dimension explains that some employees may perceive stress as an outcome arising from a lack of ability (which is internal attributions). In our case, the interviewee NANE 2 claimed that people do not start working as volunteers, after receiving a training. She wonders whether that happened due to her inability to explain their working approach well.

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All interviewees claimed that they usually speak with their colleagues and discuss in detail the situation. The strength of this strategy is that, as they claim, their colleagues necessarily include those people who are well versed in the system and have a deep understanding of the workings of Hungarian society. Sometimes they even have the same clients and they do not have to spend time explaining the system or the problems that they face. In the elaboration of the short theoretical background, Folkman and Lazarus (1984) describe social support as an effort to seek informational and emotional support from others which is under the active strategies on how people cope with stress. According to different researchers, active strategies are more constructive techniques which employees use while employees who use passive strategies are more at disposal to be burned-out, depressed, etc. 4.2. Signs of tiredness
Answers to the question: Do you think that you or your colleagues have some signs of tiredness (burnout) at the end of the day or week? If yes, which are they?

As I learned from the Patent interviewee, a legal clinic program started to be implemented during 1996 and 1997 with the participation of 30 students. Unfortunately, within two months, 25 of them disappeared and did not continue their engagement in this program. This was one of the only programs where students could gain information which they could implement in working directly with women of domestic violence. This program was pontentially very important because of its applicability in practice and for its clarity and concise approach. However, Patent interviewee 2 interpreted this high drop out as a sign of burnout. However, she denied having any sign of burnout because she goes to supervision and also speaks to colleagues and gets helpful feedback from them. The interviewee Nane 2 mentioned a case of a colleague who was became tired from her work and that she experienced psychologically the problems of her clients, which was very bad. She added that her group had made big efforts to help her. She describes how they usually speak with each other and the only thing that they can do is take an extended break of a week or a month from working directly with clients. After this break, they can come back and continue working the hotline. Also, the interviewee Nane 1 claimed that she has heard people saying that they are burned-out and they need to take a break (for those volunteers who work in hotline), but she was a bit skeptical about the reason why they leave or take a break in hotline because as she said I may not know the main reason. Some signs of burnout that were mentioned during the interviews include the following: I am fed-up with the system I dont feel like doing helpline, I am feeling tired of helpline, fed up for a while or for now. This may give the impression that the employees do not talk very much about the sources of stress or about concepts of burn out and its symptoms. Nevertheless, taking into account the relationship between regular employees and volunteers it cannot be concluded that in a particular organization there is a lack of discussion about those topics. However, this can lead to the assumption that there could be a lack of communication between volunteers and employees where people leave because of burn out and working for a long time with victims of domestic violence.

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NANE 2 specified that her colleagues may feel fed-up with the system and state employees, but never with victims, which is a very important segment in working directly with clients. None of the interviewees claimed about themselves to have any sign of burn-out which may be a sign they have used defensive mechanisms by not accepting any sign or any moment where they feel fed-up with their work. Nevertheless, they may not know exactly which are the symptoms of burnout and maybe for this reason they could say just a few perceived symptoms of their colleagues (which was mainly describe with two words: feeling tired and fed-up) 4.3. The risks of burnout
Answers to the question: Do you think that working with victims would result in signs of burn-out?

The interviewee NANE 2 accepted that working with clients can cause signs of burnout. The interviewee Patent 2 has observed this in new colleagues who become frustrated with the judicial system and then transfer this feeling of frustration to their clients. For instance, they go to court and the judge does not take into account his/her explanation regarding the cases and they may feel that their efforts and work is not leading in favor of their clients. In such circumstances, the feelings of anger and frustration are experienced and then transferred to their clients. This can be a defense mechanism that young professionals use in the beginning of their work, such as displacement mechanism they substitute their reaction from the aggressor object into more acceptable object. The interviewee NANE 2 added that working with victims can cause signs of burnout and she has seen several cases of new social workers who blame victims, which is definitely forbidden and not allowed in the feminist approach. Yet, the interviewee Nane 1 maintains that working with victims does not necessarily lead to burnout. In her opinion, the task of delivering training to police officers can easily lead to burnout due to the defensive response many police have to the idea of the need of such training, and the time spent rather on justifying their failure to act upon duties and responsibilities than learning how to do their jobs better. Furthermore, according to her they have prejudices, tend to blame victims and can display signs of racism, sexism and homophobia. 4.4. The role of supervision.
Answers to the question: Do you have any supervisor in your work where you can share the cases with? If not, do you think that is needed?

The Interviewee Patent 1 said that they have supervision every 6 or 8 weeks. She was also a supervisor for her new colleagues, but also they have hired a professional supervisor. The interviewees NANE 1 and NANE 2 claimed that they usually have problems with the supervisor because for them it is very important to have a feminist supervisor, or at least somebody who fully understands feminist issues (somebody without prejudices), in order to avoid wasting time explaining the feminist approach and goals. While according to the interviewee NANE 1, the efficacy of a supervisor depends on the professionalism of the supervisor as well as on the individual who seeks supervision. For her, the supervision has helped her to gain more information regarding the methods and techniques for helping others, since she is also a supervisor, rather than to treat her problems of work. She claimed that she did not have any problems caused by working directly with victims that needed to be discussed in supervision, even if she had, they were deeper and needed to be treated in therapy, particularly in a self awareness group (therapy which is dedicated to employees in order to know and be aware about limits and strengths of themselves). What is more, she mentions that she has a lot of colleagues with whom she

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can talk to. Another positive experience of supervision she mentioned is the assistance they received from a supervisor during a period of organizational problems. A negative aspect of supervision was that the issues of helpline were left out. In the end, she said that the supervision still remains on personal basis. So, for some people the supervision can be really helpful and contribute to their personal growth, whereas for some people, supervision can be rather unhelpful because some may need and prefer more self-awareness therapy rather than supervision. As NANE 1 claimed, when she had issues to be discussed, she needed a self-awareness therapy because there were deep and huge issues related to her personal experience after working with a particular difficult case. Otherwise, she could herself resolve some superficial issues and there was no need for supervision. In general, all of the interviewees agreed that supervision is useful, necessary and interesting in a sense that they gained information about the methods and techniques which they can use in their work as a supervisor. In other words, all of them have appreciated having a supervisor in their work because it helps them personally as well as professionally.

4.5. The lack of training to cope with stress:

Answers to the question: Have you attended any training on how to cope with stress?

All of the interviewees said that they have not attended any training with the goal of teaching stress coping mechanisms and further justified this in different ways. The interviewee Patent 1 said there are just two colleagues working in the organization, so in cases when they have any issue they resolve within their circle (with their supervisor and with colleagues). The interviewee NANE 2 suggested that it would be great for them if they had more people working in the organization as having more money in projects so that they could go somewhere outside the city and have a relaxing atmosphere to spend time with colleagues and discuss issues that concern them. In other words, she claimed that for her colleagues and herself it was more important to have funds which would enable them time for discussion and reflection with regard to their working environment and cases rather than attending any particular training. The interviewee NANE 1 said that some part of the training they covered within the supervision, such as: physical exercises, time management, etc. Also, she mentioned several years ago their organization had a practice called Open Wednesday which was an open forum where everyone could arrive with a topic and the group could discuss it. She remembered that they also discussed the topic of coping with stress, how different people have different methods and techniques on coping with stress, etc. 4.6. There are possibilities, measures to cope with stress
Answers to the question: How can policy and training e!orts meet the needs of people battling chronic stress?

All of the interviewees agreed that training on how to cope with stress can be useful for the staff. The interviewees Patent 1 and NANE 1 were keen on gaining more information on how she could help her colleagues. But also, Patent 1 described that there were cases when young professionals transfer the feelings of frustration from the system to their clients. In this situation, according to her, it is important to discuss this openly. She also reported that, as a supervisor, she would transfer such colleagues to other assignments such as writing petitions or answering letters that do not involve directly working with victims.

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NANE 2 mentioned cooperation within the group. For instance, if one colleague needs help after a telephone call in helpline, she/he could call the colleague and speak.

4.7. Knowledge of self-care programs

Answers to the question: Do you know any self care program which would assist you personally and/or your colleagues?

All of the interviewees claimed they do not know any specific program; however they agree that the program would be very useful for employees. With regard to this, the interviewee Patent 1 pointed out finding a program which would fit in the framework of their organization would be difficult. However, one of the main and common criteria of such programs to all the interviewees is that they also strive to be a human rights oriented program and if possible it should be a feminist program, otherwise they would not be willing to participate in such trainings. She justified this by saying that if they have different ideological backgrounds it would be impossible for them to participate in such trainings (according to her, victims of domestic violence are not victims of bad partners but rather victims of the patriarchal system and this belief should be held in common with the trainer). For the interviewee NANE 2, the best training is the group itself because it really helps her in her professional and academic life. Despite the fact that their work gives them a feeling of safety and empowerment, it also brings a lot of pressure and stress. The interviewee NANE 1 did not know any specific program which would be very useful for them. She has mentioned that some years ago, when they did not have any supervision, they practiced introversion, which is an internal version of supervision (peer supervision) in order to help their own employees. Peer supervision was held between the colleagues who had approximately the similar qualification and experience.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

In summary, I found that: There is no specific self-care program in Hungarian NGOs none of the interviewees have mentioned having any specific program which is dedicated to the staff on how to cope with stress. Even though one interviewee mentioned that one part of her training included tips on physical exercise and time management. What is more, all of them claimed that attending such training would be very helpful and useful for them. Social support is one of the main coping mechanisms every interviewee stated that discussing with colleagues who know very well the current Hungarian system and its challenges help them a lot in their daily work with clients. So, these three interviews indicate that Victim Service Provider Organizations use the active strategy of coping which is Seeking Social Support.

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The role of supervision is supported by all (three) members of the interviewed NGOs - The interviewees were generally positive about the role of supervision in their work. However, some of them have mentioned that supervision was also very helpful in gaining information on techniques and methods which they could use also in their work as a supervisor. Also, supervision could help in resolving organization problems which have occurred in that particular organization. So, despite personal benefits it also helped them in resolving organizational problems that occurred within the staff, also a source of stress mentioned. In addition. the interviewees found dealing with the judicial system stressful since interactions there left them with feelings of worthlessness and helplessness. Interestingly, while they reported and agreed that people working directly with victims of domestic violence may experience stress and signs of burn out, they did not think this was the case with them. Light signs of stress were indicated to be treated in effective ways by discussing in group of supervision or within the colleagues. Whereas, sign where people feel very tired of their work needed deeper treatment such as self-awareness therapy. Relevant recommendations based on the findings mentioned above, may include the following: Strengthening capacity building: Organizations should invest time, energy and also money in human resources through different trainings and activities where employees can discuss and better contribute and support each other. Funding is required for these organizations, focused on capacity strengthening, such as organizing staff retreats or joining similar organizations to allow employees to spend time with each other and discuss concerned cases, with the aim of empowering collaboration and support within the group. Supervision monthly professional supervision should be held for the employees. Whereas selfawareness therapy may be considered for the "managers who supports her/his employees. Empowering collaboration between employees in the organization as well as with other organizations which work in the field of domestic violence.

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