A life-changing trauma can shake you to your very core. The death of a cherished loved one, seeing combat, a bitter divorce, being a hostage, a disfiguring accident, brutal rape, torture, witnessing someone’s murder and more, can leave the victim with deep-seated emotional scars, what today is known as PTSD.
How can there possibly be an upside? It’s called post-traumatic growth (PTG), which over time and with the right guidance, can reframe tragedy, transforming it into an opportunity for personal growth and even rebirth.Usually, this growth takes place in one of five different ways, what psychologists call responses. The first is, the aftermath of such a crisis leads to new opportunities and possibilities that weren’t available before. You launch a support group say, or nonprofit to help other victims like yourself. The second is closer relationships. Sometimes it also makes one more empathetic to the suffering of others. One feels an increased sense of connection and is more motivated to help others through their own troubling time.
A third area of growth is a better understanding of one’s own inner strength. Such an experience can push us past our perceived limits, and also reveal a solid core of strength we never knew we had. The fourth is a greater zest for life, which includes a fresh perspective, and more gratitude for what one has. Finally, the fifth response is a spiritual or religious awakening. Reframing such a tragedy can over time, help fortify one’s own belief system.
Such growth isn’t spontaneous. One has to go through the stages of grief in order to get there. No one is advocating for suffering, either. Yet for many, it’s bound to occur at some point. Knowing how to own it, internalize it, and transform it into growth, is by far the healthiest way to handle it. Undergoing such a transformation isn’t new. Human history is littered with tales of turmoil and collapse. As a result, rebirth is a theme interwoven throughout almost all literary, philosophical, and religious traditions. What’s new is, therapists and counselors helping those who’ve suffered to experience growth.
Post-traumatic growth as theory was developed in the 1990’s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi,…
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