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The Promise of Post-Traumatic Growth Part II

 

Read "The Promise of Post-Traumatic Growth Part I" here

What do you imagine post-traumatic growth looks like? Feeling stronger in the face of a new challenge, knowing we’ve already overcome the worst that life can throw at us? Being more grateful for the little things? More connected to our friends and family? Finding new perspective and priorities? Or maybe having a deeper sense of the mystery and sanctity of life?

The answer is all of the above. In the first part of our article “The Promise of Post-Traumatic Growth” we discussed the four factors that predict whether someone is likely to experience adversity as a catalyst for growth. In this article, we examine what that growth looks like. And, because that’s the way we roll at Echo, we’ve combined the information from both articles in one easy-to-read infographic.

The Five-Domains of Post-Traumatic Growth

Right now, approximately 50% of you who have experienced trauma are reading this and saying, “I’m supposed to be grateful for all the crud that happened to me? Each day, I struggle for even a modicum of what other people take for granted. There’s no amount of ‘growth’ that can stop me wishing this hadn’t been my life.”

Post-traumatic growth is not a given. We’re not going to gloss over the long arduous road to recovery from trauma that for the most part does not feel victorious or courageous for those who are on it. However, at least 50% of survivors have found that they can begin to define themselves and their communities by their strengths and that in no small way these strengths have been forged by adversity. 

Click here to continue reading more about the five-domains of post-traumatic growth.

 

Hear more about post-traumatic growth at our Changing the Paradigm Conference 2018: Frontiers of Resilience, where Jim Rendon will be discussing his book ‘Upside’ in which he interviewed Tedeschi and Calhoun, the foremost researchers in this field, and others whose stories exemplify the power of the human spirit to not just overcome but grow from trauma.

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Thank you, Louise: Such an imperative article articulating the Five-Domains of Post-Traumatic Growth! Thank you for posting. And thank you to your stellar team at Echo Parenting & Education! Your infographic is such an exemplary resource.

Especially wanted to lift up the fifth Post-Traumatic Growth domain shared:

Spiritual development
“Why did God let this happen?” is a common enough question after trauma. We either have to readjust our spiritual beliefs to encompass trauma or revise them altogether.  As Tedeschi and Calhoun note, sometimes this results in a loss of faith and sometimes a deepening of belief. Perhaps you didn’t have a religious or spiritual belief in the first place? The Post-Traumatic Growth inventory developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun is being expanded to include existential themes that resonate with those who are more secular as well as to allow for cross-cultural differences in perceptions of spirituality.

One of my mantras in life is the quote, "We are all spiritual beings having a human experience. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience."

Our inter-connectivity, our connection, our relationships - this is how we heal, help each other heal, and heal Mother Earth.  Spirituality.

Humanity's question - "How do we integrate ACEs Science with spirituality?"


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