Post-Traumatic Success: Positive Psychology & Solution-Focused Strategies

When we think of PTSD, what all too often comes to mind is hyper-vigilance, flashbacks, nightmares, intense fear, and debilitation, even among therapists like myself. We often fail to recognize that strength and resilience, too, can start with trauma and adversity. The path toward resilience can be confusing, uncertain, and downright scary, but in Post-Traumatic Success, Fredrike Bannink diligently leads the way. In this quest, Bannink has company. What Doesn’t Kill Us, by Stephen Joseph, and Posttraumatic Growth in Clinical Practice, by Lawrence Calhoun and Richard Tedeschi, both explore growth after trauma. Whereas Joseph, a professor in Nottingham, weaves narrative examples to illustrate the concepts that he backs with research, Calhoun and Tedeschi, both researchers, rely heavily on their large studies to draw out the core concepts of post-traumatic growth. But here is where Bannink parts ways. While both Joseph and Calhoun and Tedeschi offer a comprehensive description and multiple examples of post-traumatic growth, Bannink dons her solution-focused hat. Bannink, who is also the author of 1001 Solution-Focused Questions, shows us that in asking the right questions, and looking for the right exceptions to the problem, we can facilitate this kind of resilience and growth. Bannink draws a firm line between typical PTSD treatment approaches and what she calls post-traumatic success. Many of the psychologists and psychiatrists who work with PTSD are “pathologizers,...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Abuse Book Reviews Professional Psychology Psychotherapy PTSD Stress Fredrike Bannink Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Success posttraumatic stress Source Type: news