Personal Experience: Perceiving Trauma

Perceiving trauma as an opportunity for growth gave me an alternative conceptualization of traumatic experiences. I attended a workshop on traumatic growth a few years before I enrolled at Saybrook. The workshop was very helpful that I learned to hold a sense of hopefulness while the clients with traumatic experiences might not be able to. I also learned that clinicians need to hold their clients’ struggle with them while they are discovering their own path to see the experiences as a growth opportunity.
Werdel and Wicks (2012) cautions their readers to not to glorify trauma and suffering. They emphasized that traumatic experience is inherently negative. Furthermore, clients with trauma history come to treatment for reduction of suffering;