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Is it true that for psychotherapy to work you have to get worse before you get better?
Or is this nothing more than dangerous and misguided thinking?
Recent research suggests that there may actually be some truth in this adage—at least when it comes to how people deal with traumatic events.
Some trauma therapists have long suggested that some degree of posttraumatic distress is actually the necessary trigger to instigate a journey of positive psychological change.
But this idea has been controversial, until now.
Recent research has shown that posttraumatic distress is crucial to set posttraumatic growth in motion.
This is the conclusion of a recent landmark study by Sharon Dekel and Zahava Solomon from the School of Social Work at Tel-Aviv University, and Tsachi Ein-Dor from the School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and published in the most recent issue of the American Psychological Association's journal of Psychological Trauma.
Intrigued by previous research showing that on the one hand trauma jeopardizes psychological functioning and results in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and on the other that trauma can be the springboard to the positive psychological functioning of posttraumatic growth (PTG), the authors set out to shed light on the interplay between PTSD and PTG.
Can it be that PTSD actually predicts PTG?
Using longitudinal self-report data from Israeli combat veterans who were studied over 17 years—with assessment at three time points: 1991, 2003, and 2008, the aim was to examine the temporal relation between PTS and PTG. Using a statistical technique called autoregressive cross-lagged modeling, it was found that greater PTSD in 1991 predicted greater PTG in 2003, and greater PTSD in 2003 predicted greater PTG in 2008.
Findings provide strong support for the view that posttraumatic growth is a response to posttraumatic stress—which is consistent with theoretical models that growth arises from the affective-cognitive struggle survivors' experience in the aftermath of trauma.
The implications for therapy are profound—for anyone going through trauma this study offers hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel—people experiencing PTSD have the potential for positive psychological change—and that change may actually be facilitated by PTSD.
To find out more about my work: http://www.profstephenjoseph.com
Reference
Dekel, S., Ein-Dor, T., & Solomon, Z. (2012). Posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic distress: A longitudinal study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 4, 94-101.
