From Devastation to Integration: Adjusting to and Growing From Medical Trauma

• Published in: Qualitative health research 2006-10, Vol.16 (8), p.1021-1037
• Main Authors: Salick, Elizabeth C., Auerbach, Carl F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Aged; Data analysis; Disability; Disabled Persons - psychology; Female; Health technology assessment; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Life Change Events; Male; Medical research; Middle Aged; Personal development; Personal growth; Physical trauma; Positive life orientation; Qualitative research; Resilience; Self Efficacy; Trauma care; United States; Wounds and Injuries - psychology
• ISSN: 1049-7323; 1552-7557
• DOI: 10.1177/1049732306292166

Recent trauma research has begun to investigate the possibility of posttraumatic growth. However, most studies have investigated posttraumatic growth using quantitative methods and thus have neglected people’s subjective experience and have left unexamined post-traumatic growth in persons with visible impairment. To fill some of these gaps, the authors examined the process of recovery and posttraumatic growth using a qualitative method. They interviewed 10 participants with visible impairment from chronic illness or serious injury using a semistructured interview. Using a grounded theory data analysis procedure, the authors developed a stage model of trauma and recovery from the interviews. The stages that emerged are thematically entitled Apprehension, Diagnosis and Devastation, Choosing to Go On, Building a Way to Live, and Integration of the Trauma and Expansion of the Self. The authors discuss limitations of the study and clinical implications for psychological counseling with this population.