Facilitating Posttraumatic Growth

"Calhoun and Tedeschi have written a masterful book that takes on the dialectic of traumatic experience: that strength and growth can emerge from and accompany terrible pain and loss. This important text succeeds in challenging clinicians to notice resilience and strength among their trauma survivor clients, while never turning away from or diminishing the horror and pain of personal trauma. The authors tackle a complicated and difficult subject with scholarly care and clinical sensitivity. They carefully avoid the potential pitfalls of naivete, insensitivity, and moralism while emphasizing the need for complex thinking about the long term effects of traumatic life events. The book has a clear, sensible organization that will make it valuable to clinicians at all levels of experience."
—Karen W. Saakvitne, Ph.D.
Traumatic Stress Institute/Center for Adult and Adolescent Psychotherapy South W

"Drawing on their extensive experience as both researchers and clinicians, Calhoun and Tedeschi have produced a very readable and practical book for any clinician who works with clients struggling to cope with traumatic events. While acknowledging the negative aftermath of trauma, Calhoun and Tedeschi describe valuable techniques for encouraging posttraumatic growth in clients. Particularly helpful are the numerous case examples, homework assignments for both clinicians and clients, and an extensive resource list."
—Patricia A. Frazier, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

"The Phoenix is the mythological bird who rises anew from the ashes of its own funeral pyre. In their work on posttraumatic growth, Calhoun and Tedeschi put flesh and feathers on our hazy outline of this ancient symbol of resurrection. By focusing on the possibility of positive transformation after trauma, the authors urge clinicians to think outside the box, to consider all the ways in which the overwhelming energy of traumatic experience can be refocused on accelerating the dynamic of health instead of illness and injury."
—Sandra L. Bloom, MD
The Sanctuary, Horsham Clinic, Ambler PA; Author of Creating Sanctuary: Toward t