Kristti Peer 1

One of the topics in this module that was extremely interesting to me was the reading on, 
Growth after Trauma, by Lorna Collier. Since trauma is an area of interest for me already, due to personal aspects in my own life and my children’s life, I was really drawn to the fact of hearing that there was a difference between post-traumatic growth (PTG) and resilience. For me, I have always viewed the time after a traumatic event where the person can once again function in manner that would be considered normal for them, as growth or resilience. The two terms coincided with my vision of what life would be like after a trauma.

However, in the article Tedeschi explains that “someone who is already resilient when trauma occurs won’t experience PTG because a resilient person isn’t rocked to the core by an event and doesn’t have to seek a new belief system” (Collier, 2016). For me when I read this, I had to really think about what was being said. So, for PTG to happen, one must not be strong or durable? Does this mean that those who have a strong spiritual belief will never experience PTG because they are already resilient with having the comfort of God and their foundational religious beliefs?

I believe that regardless of one’s personal emotional core, that PTG can be achieved from any traumatic event. Just the event alone causes a disruption in a person’s life and depending on the scale of the trauma, the person that it happened to will have to adjust their way of thinking, feeling, and being present in the world. For me, this adjustment, if positive, is still considered growth even if the person has an easier time adjusting, there is still adjustment made. For me resilience and traumatic growth will still coincide with each other.

Reference

Collier, L. (2016, November 1). Growth after trauma. 
Monitor on Psychology, 
47(10). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma

Thomas Peer 2

There were several topics in this week’s modules that I found remarkably interesting and compelling. The module on “Flow, the secret of happiness” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2004) and the module on “The New Era of Positive Psychology” (Seligman, 2008) were remarkably interesting but what stood out for me was the module on “Growth after trauma” (Collier, 2016). Personal trauma harms all of us and our response to those traumas can either be negative or positive. Less resilient people, on the other hand, may go through distress and confusion as they try to understand why this terrible thing happened to them and what it means for their worldview (Collier, 2016). The response to the trauma that most people had experienced had little to no relationship to spiritual belief. Most of the post-trauma responses and recovery from the patients in the studies showed a strong recovery from the trauma was based upon the resilience of the individual.

There is a slight confusion between resilience and spiritual strength. As a Christian, my response and recovery to tragic situations have always been more spiritually based then than the act of resilience. Yes, having a positive outlook on life and the presence of plasticity is vital, but spiritual strength has always been the basis for my recovery in life.

References

Collier, L. (2016, November 1). Growth after trauma. Monitor on Psychology, 47(10). 
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma
Links to an external site.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004, February). 
Flow, the secret to happiness [Video]. TED Conferences. 
https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness?language=en
Links to an external site.

Seligman, M. (2008, February). 
The new era of positive psychology [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology