As professional communicators, we are the storytellers – the bridge between events that take place and the people that need to know about them. Sometimes those events are steeped in trauma, directly impacting community members or other public agency employees. What is often overlooked is the effect on communicators as they are left holding onto the rougher parts of an incident while making the story more palatable for the communities they serve. This is called vicarious trauma. Too often, vicarious trauma is ignored or goes unidentified by the communicator that is experiencing it, the people around them and the organization they work for. Communicators will often not feel as though they have the right to talk about this trauma, or be embarrassed about feelings of trauma, because maybe what they experienced isn’t as direct as the original traumatic event. But trauma isn’t a competition and people will not always experience the impact of traumatic events in the same way. Being exposed to traumatic events or vicarious trauma can elicit a variety of emotional and physical responses, and if not addressed, it can compound and affect you personally and professionally. In this unique session, attendees can expect an approachable discussion about vicarious trauma—they will learn about what it is, how it affects communicators specifically, how to recognize it and how to navigate it in very practical ways.