Reconstructing Meaning After Trauma: Theory, Research, and Practice informs actual therapeutic work with clients who present with traumas or other life disruptions by providing clinicians with information on the construction of meaning. It includes material on diverse mechanisms of clinical change and positive-promoting processes. The book covers identifiable treatments and specific lines of research in assisting clients in developing new meaning, such as posttraumatic growth (after sexual assault, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, destructive natural phenomena, such as hurricanes, and refugee experiences), and finding benefit (in the context of loss—loss of health, or loss of a loved one). - Addresses a specific treatment or line of research - Includes extended case vignettes at the beginning of each chapter - Describes the associated theoretical background for each method - Summarizes the research supporting each mechanism - Concludes with a discussion of future directions for treatment, research, and theory

Repressive regimes, regardless of their nature and geographic location, have a destructive and dehumanizing effect on people’s lives. Oppression and political violence shatter victims’ identities, their relationships, communities and the meaning of their world as a safe and coherent place. However, while some people suffer traumatising long term effects, others become stronger and more resilient, able to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of tragedy. Reconstructing Trauma and Meaning is an invitation to revisit, bear witness and listen to the stories of suffering and healing of survivors of apartheid repression in South Africa. This work is an exploration of the life trajectories of former victims of gross human rights violations during apartheid and their creative ways of reconstructing meaning after trauma. Their life narratives, shaped by social, political and cultural realities, are a valuable contribution to the collective memory of the nation, as an intrinsic part of the continuous process of reconciliation and transformation in South Africa.

A prominent theme presented in this volume is that symptoms in the bereaved individual have meaning-making significance and that meaning reconstruction in response to loss is the central process in grieving. More scientifically oriented readers will find comprehensive discussions of research programs supporting these tenets, particularly those linking grief with responses to loss involved in trauma. Practitioners will find clinically informed models and ample case descriptions to bridge concepts with real people suffering real loss. All will find new paradigms for approaching loss and reconstruction of meaning in a respectful, revealing way that has significance both personally and professionally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).

In this groundbreaking book, a leading clinical psychiatrist redefines how we think about and treat victims of trauma. A "stunning achievement" that remains a "classic for our generation." (Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score). Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war. Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud," Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how we heal and are healed.

Serious difficulties arise when people try to make sense of their feelings, behavior, and discourse in everyday life and, especially, after traumatic experiences. Two groups of impediments are identified: the "indescribable" is demonstrated by a group of pathfinders working through their different maps of mind and nature; by individuals trying to understand and integrate a first heart attack into their previous life experiences. The "undiscussable" is highlighted in the intergenerational transmission of traumatic experiences in the families of Holocaust survivors and Nazi perpetrators. By providing a unique way of looking at life experiences, embedded in a variety of social contexts, this book suggests a new psychosocial theoretical framework which can be used by both laymen and professionals when confronted by troublesome issues that require acknowledgement.

Promoting Positive Processes After Trauma targets one of the most damaging effects of trauma, ongoing impairment across the whole of "living." Viewing clients with trauma histories from the perspectives of their shared experiences is the foundation for the application of six strengths and virtues studied by positive psychology: hope, positive emotions, resilience, forgiveness, spirituality and religiosity, and meaning-making. The lived trauma experience of the contributing author illustrates actual means of change - Presents foundational information and newest findings from trauma and from positive psychology - Covers strengths and virtues that can be directly targeted in treatment or used as ancillary treatment goals - Provides further readings suitable for clients and for clinicians - Concludes with an integrative exploration of the organization of positive processes and their integration into portfolios.

This new edition offers new case studies, new empirical evaluation, modern philosophical roots of forgiveness therapy, and new measurement techniques.

Re-authoring Life Narratives after Trauma is an interdisciplinary, specialist resource for traumatic stress researchers, practitioners and frontline workers who focus their research and work on communities from diverse religious backgrounds that are confronted with trauma, death, illness and other existential crises. This book aims to argue that the biopsychosocial approach is limited in scope when it comes to reaching a holistic model of assessing and treating individuals and communities that are exposed to trauma. The holistic model must integrate an understanding of and respect for the many forms of religion and spirituality that clients might have (Pargament 2011). It will not only bring a spiritual perspective into the psychotherapeutic dialogue, but it will also assist in dealing with the different demands in pastoral ministry as related to clinical and post-traumatic settings. The book makes several contributions to scholarship in the disciplines of, although not limited to, traumatic stress studies, pastoral care and counselling, psychology and psychiatry. Firstly, the book brings spirituality into the psychotherapeutic dialogue; traditionally, religious and spiritual topics have not been a welcome part of the psychotherapeutic dialogue. Secondly, it underscores the significance of documenting literary narratives as a means of healing trauma; writing about our traumas enables us to express things that cannot be conveyed in words, and to bring to light what has been suppressed and imagine new possibilities of living meaningfully in a changed world. Thirdly, it proposes an extension to the five-stage model of trauma and recovery coined by Judith Herman.

As a concept, 'trauma' has attracted a great deal of interest in literary studies. A key term in psychoanalytic approaches to literary study, trauma theory represents a critical approach that enables new modes of reading and of listening. It is a leading concept of our time, applicable to individuals, cultures, and nations. This book traces how trauma theory has come to constitute a discrete but influential approach within literary criticism in recent decades. It offers an overview of the genesis and growth of literary trauma theory, recording the evolution of the concept of trauma in relation to literary studies. In twenty-one essays, covering the origins, development, and applications of trauma in literary studies, Trauma and Literature addresses the relevance and impact this concept has in the field.

In this book, Calhoun and Tedeschi construct the first systematic framework for clinical efforts to enhance the processes they sum up as posttraumatic growth. Posttraumatic growth is the phenomenon of positive change through struggle with even the most horrible sets of circumstances. People who experience it tend to describe three general types of change: realistically stronger feelings of vulnerability that are nonetheless accompanied by stronger feelings of personal resilience, closer and deeper relationships with others, and a stronger sense of spirituality. Posttraumatic growth has only recently become an important focus of interest for researchers and practitioners. Drawing on a burgeoning professional literature as well as on their own extensive clinical experience, the authors present strategies for helping clients effect all three types of positive change--strategies that have been tested in a variety of groups facing a variety of crises and traumas. Their concise yet comprehensive practical guide will be welcomed by all those who counsel persons grappling with the worst life has to offer.