Transforming Trauma: What is Post Traumatic Growth (PTG)?
Post-traumatic growth is the positive aspects of personal transformation succeeding a traumatic event. It is a way of finding the purpose of pain and looking beyond the struggle.
“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedom- to chose one’s attitude, in any given set of circumstances, to chose one’s own way.”
It is HOW we move forward that is important.
And this is totally in your control!
By engaging with suffering, we can develop meaning in our lives. Rather than suffer in vain, but to suffer with meaning.
It is not the trauma that creates the change, it is how a person responds to the trauma that creates the change.
5 Domains of Post Traumatic Growth adapted from Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun.
Personal Strength
Appreciation for Life
Close Relationships
New Possibilities
Spiritual Change
Personal Strength-I CAN
“At a time when one is vulnerable as never before, there is a sense of strength.” If I can do this, I can do anything. “Strength through Suffering”
Appreciation for Life- I THANK
“What can break us open can also open us more to life.” Seeing the world with new eyes.
Close Relationships- I CHERISH
“Some deeper relationships form while others are lost.” There is potential to forge new relationships as a result of enduring a traumatic experience.
New Possibilities- I DREAM
“Out of loss there can be gain.” Reevaluation of goals and priorities. New possibilities can open up have experienced a traumatic event.
Spiritual Change- I ACCEPT
“Out of spiritual doubt there can emerge a deeper faith.” Reconstruction of beliefs and understanding of a person’s world view. This could mean something different for each person (finding this connection in nature, the uplifting aspects of music, in their personal relationship with a power greater than themselves.
Post Traumatic Growth is different for anyone. You may resonate with multiple domains or a single domain. Through the process of self-disclosure, whether it is talking with others, journaling, or creating art, we can rewrite the narrative around a trauma. By revealing both the positives and the negative aspects of a traumatic experience through self-disclosure, you get to learn more about yourself. It is through the process of meaning-making and self-disclosure, we are able to integrate these experiences ends, understand ourselves more deeply, and create experiences of post-traumatic growth for ourselves.
How you do want to write the narrative around a traumatic event you have experienced? How can you make your suffering meaningful and use it as fuel in the fire of life?
Questions that can encourage a perspective shift regarding a challenge experience-
What area of strength has the experience shown me about myself that I previously wasn’t aware of?
How has enduring this traumatic experience informing the person I am today?
What greater part of myself is this/has this struggle asking me to step into?
What other groups of people or survivors that I can relate to more deeply because of this experience?
Want to support a loved one who has suffered a traumatic event?
Listen. Be able to listen to difficult content without interjecting your views, opinions or experience.
Learn from the person going through the struggle. Let go of advice-giving or offering solutions.
Be with the other person with presence. Remembering that sometimes there are no words.