Trauma and Resilience
Addie Todal
Northcentral University
Trauma and Resilience
“The trauma said, ‘don’t write these poems. Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.” ― Andrea Gibson, the Madness Vase
This quote I found to be very poignant and to be so true, because what it is really saying is that social stigma is a big part in today’s society and mental illness is not accepted, so please keep quiet and move on silently. I added my own thoughts below that will reflect two powerful words.
**Two of my favorite words are: Trauma and Resilience, for the simple reason I personally have experienced both first hand, trauma which has caused me psychological and physical health problems and resilience which I seem to have internally as some of the researchers say or argue with that resilience is an inborn characteristic—you have it or you do not, simply put, either you do or you don’t. I would say I do. ** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is to be said or maintained that resilience can be taught…. It is possible that resilience can be taught? And if it can be taught for all the right reason, then I would call it having thick skin. Having self –esteem, self-confidence, the best psychotherapist or the most awesome cognitive behavior therapist one has ever had. The group that I have chosen is trauma survivors; I will have chosen three different programs aimed at building resiliency in those groups. As I prepare this paper, I will describe the programs and the research based evidence of their efficacy. The first area that I will note is the definition and main principles of resiliency, Miriam –Webster’s definition of resiliency “is the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens”. The main principles of resiliency are the following concepts such as stated by: “the notion of resilience, which attempts to explain the phenomenon of positive adaptation (coping) of people exposed to adversities or traumatic events”’ (Szwajca, 2014). The author really some very powerful and suggestive words that make trauma seem that it is just another “normal “ everyday word in the English language , however, this is a word that has a social stigma that people do not want to tattoo on their body for the world to see.
Sometimes it is very difficult to measure and raise some methodological concerns when it comes to understanding positive adaptation and coping with the idea of trauma and how resiliency can affect any or all of biological, psychological, social and even environmental factors. The nature of
What Trauma Therapy Should looks like? (How many tools are in your toolbox?)(www.trr.org) Imagine triggers no longer triggering
Trauma transforms. Certainly for bad, but also for
Good. (healing)
•Describe the group you chose and the challenges it faces.
•Describe the programs that have been developed to build resiliency in this group.
•Compare and contrast the programs and outcomes.
•Discuss any research that may apply to these programs.
References
Coping with Crisis [pdf / 793KB] http://www.healingresources.info/pdf/Trauma_Resilience.pdf http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resilience http://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/our-services/local-services/specialist-services/prescribed-services/trauma/ Szwajca, K. (2014). [Resilience and responses to the experience of trauma--a fascinating but difficult study area]. Psychiatria Polska, 48(3), 563-572. http://www.trauma-pages.com/ http://www.traumaandresiliencyresources.org/ 