Self-care for gender-based violence researchers - Beyond bubble baths and chocolate pralines

Researching sensitive topics often carries immediate effects on researchers, yet discussions about the emotional and psychological impacts of conducting this type of research remain rare. In recent years, debates begun to emerge about the emotional and psychological toll that qualitative field-based research on violence in general, and on gender-based violence (GBV) in particular, can have on those conducting this research. Most of the existing support and self-care strategies in response to these effects, however, are primarily tailored towards practitioners, but not specifically for researchers, who often face unique challenges and experiences. At the same time, most existing self-care guidelines in the fields of violence research typically centre around neo-liberalized strategies, which fail to take into account the structural dimensions of researchers' challenges and the long-term nature of vicarious traumatization. In this article, we move beyond such approaches and instead adopt relational and collaborative ways of taking care of ourselves and each other. Drawing on our experiences of researching GBV, we propose that strategies of coping with the emotional and psychological toll of GBV research require relationships and collaborations. This collaborative and communal approach becomes particularly acute within the absence of support and care at the structural and institutional level, within universities and organizations. The collaborative and relational approaches that we propose in this article specifically include forms of peer-support and fostering 'caring communities', in the form of groups, collectives or networks.

Automated summary

Researching sensitive topics has immediate effects on researchers, but discussions about the emotional and psychological impacts of this type of research are rare. Recent debates have emerged about the toll that qualitative field-based research on violence, particularly gender-based violence, can have on researchers. Existing support and self-care strategies are primarily tailored towards practitioners and fail to consider the unique challenges and long-term nature of vicarious traumatization faced by researchers. In this article, the authors propose relational and collaborative approaches to coping with the emotional and psychological toll of gender-based violence research, emphasizing the importance of relationships and collaborations in the absence of structural support and care.