The document discusses posttraumatic growth, which is defined as positive psychological changes that can result from struggling with challenging life crises. It provides examples of how trauma survivors experience greater appreciation of life, sense of personal strength, recognition of new possibilities, and warmer relationships. The document also discusses factors that can influence whether an individual experiences posttraumatic growth, such as social support, coping skills, thinking style, and self-efficacy. It provides strategies for leaders to facilitate posttraumatic growth by building resilience and encouraging growth in these domains.

1. Fran Vertue PhD FNZCCP

2.  Clinical psychologist by profession
› Thinking about and understanding the ways that people think and
feel and behave is what I do for a living
› But it’s also what I do for fun - always a deeply nosy parker
› Privileged to be privy to people’s thoughts and feelings, their dreams
and fears
› Positive changes that they bring to their lives
 Earthquake challenges
› Something has happened that has caused me to rethink my work and
my relationship to my work
› The earthquakes with their attendant crises of loss, terror, despair, and
helplessness
 Posttraumatic growth
› How to facilitate realistic hope and optimism
› While researching the topic of posttraumatic stress
› Article by Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, published in 2004
› Concept of posttraumatic growth
› Changed my thinking, the way I felt, and my practice

3.  Definition
› “positive psychological change experienced as the result of the struggle
with highly challenging life crises”.
› Lance Armstrong: “I don’t feel unlucky to have had to go through this. I
learned a lot and grew tremendously the last two years”.
› Reynolds Price: “Trauma forces a person to be somebody else, the next
viable you – a stripped-down whole other clear-eyed person, realistic as
a sawed-off shotgun and thankful for air, not to speak of the human
kindness you’ll meet if you get normal luck”
 Origins
› response to diverse kinds of trauma
› growth of the positive psychology movement in the past 15 years
› focusing more on the positive effects of negative events
 Caveats
› Experiencing a crisis does not guarantee personal growth
› Personal growth does not depend on a crisis to happen
› PTG does not negate the pain and suffering associated with the trauma
(it is not a healing process).

4.  Greater appreciation of life and a changed
sense of priorities
A reduction in materialism; appreciation for
the small things in life that have been
taken for granted; re-evaluation of what really
matters
“even the smallest joys in life take on a
special meaning”
“things that used to be big deals aren’t big
deals any more”

5.  Greater sense of personal strength and
survival
A sense that one must be pretty resilient to
have survived this catastrophe – this sense
is coupled with an acknowledgement that
Bad things can happen
“if I survived this, then I can survive
anything”

6.  Recognition of new possibilities or paths for
one’s life
Identification of new possibilities for one’s life or work or home
“When I lost my business I suddenly saw that I really
wanted to do something completely different”
“We’ve wanted to live in an eco-friendly house for a
long time – now we will make that happen”

7.  Warmer, more intimate relationships with others
at the individual and community levels
“When he died, people just came out of the
woodwork . . .I realise now how important
relationships are”
“I didn’t know that my neighbours even knew
who I was”
“My family has drawn much closer in the past
year”
“We’re much more connected as a community”

8.  Spiritual development
Engagement in fundamental existential
questions can lead to significant personal
growth - quite different reactions
“I thought, there can’t be a God – how
could he let this happen”
“I believe God got me through it”

9.  Why some people experience PTG and
others don’t
› Social support (e.g., self-disclosure in safe
and appropriate ways like journaling,
counseling)
› Coping skills (e.g. healthy lifestyle, managing
strong emotions adaptively)
› Thinking style (e.g. proactive problem-
solving, making sense, cognitive clarity)
› Self-efficacy (e.g., belief that you have some
ability to influence the course of your life)

10.  Strategies for leaders
› When you notice positive change in one
domain, look for it in the others
› Provide social support (e.g., EAP, group
support, mentoring)
› Build coping skills (promotion of healthy
lifestyle, distress tolerance skills)

11. › Encourage proactive thinking (e.g. actively
making sense of trauma and change, providing
opportunities for people to create positive
change for themselves in as many aspects of
their work lives as possible)
› (a)Combine a changed sense of priorities with
(b) greater sense of personal strength with
(c) recognition of new possibilities for one’s life
or work with
(d) deeper relationships
› Create fertile ground for positive change and
facilitate adaptation to uncertain environments

12. The traumas of loss and terror can shake
our physical and psychological worlds
apart, but can also shake loose our old
restraints to free us up for new growth

13.  Build resilience
› Increase social support
› Develop coping skills
› Promote cognitive clarity
› Promote self efficacy
 Encourage posttraumatic growth
› Accentuate an appreciation of life
› Celebrate survival
› Enhance relationships at all levels
› Encourage creative thinking