Prof. Steven Sandage featured in BU Brink article on Social Media and Mental Health
The following is an excerpt from a BU Brink article “Is a News and Social Media Overload Negatively Affecting Your Mental Health?” by Rich Barlow, featuring Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology Steven Sandage, published October 17, 2025.
In a year of violence and suffering, here and around the world, harrowing reports and images have flooded news channels and social media feeds, affecting even those who haven’t personally witnessed the horrors. That has two Boston University researchers bracing for a surge in “vicarious trauma”: distress from secondhand exposure to gruesome events through news, our screens, or from counseling traumatized people.
Steven Sandage directs research at BU’s Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute and is the Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology at the School of Theology. Laura Captari is a researcher and staff psychologist at the Danielsen Institute. They have studied vicarious trauma in religious leaders and therapists and developed CHRYSALIS, a free online program for caregivers to fortify their own resilience as they counsel traumatized congregants and patients. More than 400 people have gone through the program. The Danielsen Institute treats people with mental health problems and trains clinical psychologists and social workers.
The Brink asked Captari and Sandage about their research and what we can do to protect against these potentially traumatizing times.
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