Life changing: The experience of rape-crisis work

Sexual violence has been studied extensively in the social work literature. However, the experiences of social workers in organizations that serve clients who are victims of sexual violence have been given limited attention. This article presents the findings of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of 21 women employees of rape-crisis programs. The findings suggest that social work with such clients presented the workers with a host of emotional and existential challenges, such as increased feelings of vulnerability as women, diminished trust in others, and questioning the overall goodness of society.