by Colette Georgii

Created on: May 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 19, 2009

Interviewing the victim of a traumatic event can be quite a bit different than any other type of interview. It may be much more difficult than doing the average interview and sometimes almost impossible. Traumatic events can have a different effect on each individual giving the interviewer almost no clue as to how to approach the traumatized victim.

There are a few key words to think about when thinking about interviewing the victims of traumatic events.

* Sympathy

* Empathy

* Gentleness

To compassionately interview traumatized victims you must first have a lot of sympathy and be able to understand what the victim has endured or witnessed. But empathy is the most important word that can help you understand how you should compassionately interview your victim of trauma. Empathy is the ability to feel exactly what the victim felt and it's the ability to actually put yourself in the shoes of the victim and know the victim's trauma. Only then can you truly talk to the victim the way it is necessary to deal with the issues confronting the victim because you know what the issues are and you can actually feel them yourself.

Once you have empathy, sympathy is all-encompassing. You know exactly how to dole out the right kind of sympathy to fit the situation. Once you have established empathy and sympathy, you can use the power of gentleness.

Gentle has a lot of meanings according to the Oxford Universal Dictionary. Gentle
is

* mild

* not rough

* Noble

* excellent

* well-bred

* generous

* courteous

* polite

* not harsh

* not irritating

* soft

* tender

* pliant

* supple

* not violent or severe

How can you apply all the actions that go with these words to compassionately interview the traumatized victim? First look them up in the dictionary. Each one may have a slight difference in meaning. Get to know the meaning. Then examine yourself to see if you are the type of person who uses these types of actions. Get to know yourself. Are you capable of applying gentleness when interviewing?

If you aren't sure, there is a way to find out. Make up a test for yourself and ask a few close friends or relatives to rate you according to the words above and to give their extra comments about them. This will help you assess yourself and show you areas where you can improve your interviewing skills.

There are certain traumatic events that require this gentleness when dealing with and interviewing the traumatized victim

* rape

* aggravated assault

* robbery

* attempted homicide

* murder

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