Many of us will experience some kind of traumatic event in our lives.  And there are many factors that affect how traumatic it is for you.

While resilience and supports can help reduce the effects of trauma, they are not always enough.

This is especially true when the trauma is interpersonal and repeated.  This can lead to more server of trauma—that can be harder to recover from. In situations like this, the trauma overwhelms a person’s ability to deal with it.

PTSD shakes the foundation of who you thought you were and what you believed in. Later, when you’re away from the abuse, you’re forced to put the pieces of yourself back together.  It’s extremely difficult.  Sometimes just making it through the day, the hour or the minute can seem to much when the PTSD systems are strong.  And yet, most of us keep going somehow.  And there’s an unknown strength that is developing through this, below the surface of distress and pain.

People are rarely the same as they were before the trauma. And some people discover through the hardship of keeping going that strengths unfold.  In this process, you are becoming stronger than you ever were before the trauma.   How can that be?

In the spring of 1992, after returning from work in the late evening, I discovered my house had been broken into.  The back door was wide open and there was a cassette play the thieves dropped on their rush out the door.  The shelves where my receiver. cd play and hundreds of CDs were empty.   At work the next day, I told two co-workers what had happened.  One of them replied, “you must feel violated.”  My other friend nodding, her face a mix of worry and hurt.  My But I didn’t feel any of that.

I remember thinking, “My house was broken int and I was robbed, but this was nothing compared to the abuse I went though.”  It just didn’t come close to what I felt was a violation.

As a therapist, I understand why I was able to handle a home break-in with such resilience.  It was related to the growth I experience following my own healing and recovery from child abuse.

While post-traumatic stress occurs, so can post-traumatic growth.  “Compared to what I’ve been through–this is nothing,”  is a strength some people discover as they heal from trauma.

If you’re a survivor of trauma, are you able to see growth in yourself?  Can you think of specific examples of personal growth–that sense of feeling stronger inside?

Recognizing and acknowledging the ways you’ve become stronger–not only helps you overcome the trauma, recognizing personal growth improves the overall quality of your life.  This doesn’t mean ignoring the trauma symptoms you’re still dealing with.  It’s very important not to address those symptoms.  But, acknowledging your growth following trauma, not only helps your overall recovery, but deepens, and strengthens you inside.

Here are a few questions to help identify your areas of growth:

Based on what you’ve been through:

• is there something that’s now easier for you to deal with now?
• are there some things that bother you less—you’re somehow tougher in handling?
• can you face certain things you couldn’t before?
• are there things you can talk about now that were harder before?
• are there some things that you can do now that you couldn’t before?

If you find it hard to answer these questions, a therapist specializing in trauma recovery can help you.

As a trauma therapist, I can help you make sense of and move past what you went through. And I can help you identify your strengths, where you’ve grown and what to focus on strengthening.

If you have experienced trauma or PTSD and are interested in exploring treatment that looks not only reducing symptoms, but at increasing areas of growth contact me today. If you’re not sure if therapy is right for you, we offer a free 15 minute consulting to see if counselling is right for you.

Contact My Winnipeg at 204-504-6976 or see the Contact Page for more information.