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Finding Our Invincible Summer:

Finding Our Invincible Summer: The Relationships Between Spirituality, Forgiveness & Posttraumatic Growth October 19, 2011 NCVACC 2011 ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE Mary Beth Werdel, Ph.D., LPC, NCC Assistant Professor Pastoral Care & Counseling Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education

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Finding Our Invincible Summer:

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  1. Finding Our Invincible Summer: The Relationships Between Spirituality, Forgiveness & Posttraumatic Growth October 19, 2011 NCVACC 2011 ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE Mary Beth Werdel, Ph.D., LPC, NCC Assistant Professor Pastoral Care & Counseling Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education Fordham University

  2. Part I : PTG Theory & ResearchPart ii: Spirituality BREAKPart III: ForgivenessPart IV: PRACTICE BREAKPart V: Questions & Discussion

  3. PTG: THEORY & Research

  4. Basic Life Assumptions • Janoff-Bullman’s Theory: • The world is benevolent • The world is meaningful • The self is worthy

  5. Examples of Life Assumptions • The world is safe • Bad things do not happen to good people • Young people aren’t suppose to die

  6. “Shattered Assumptions” (Janoff-Bullman)

  7. Trauma “lost their way in the world” (Van derKolk)

  8. “ In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.” -Albert Calmus

  9. Posttraumatic Growth • Changes in the perception of self • Changes in relating to others • Philosophical changes of priorities, appreciations, and spirituality (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006).

  10. Psychological Frame Traditional Positive Psychology What is going wrong? What is going right?

  11. Emily’s Essay

  12. What Are Our Expectations? • Expect Growth • No Awareness of Growth • The Middle Path

  13. THEORIES OF GROWTH • How does growth occur?

  14. Ways of Coping • Problem-focused • Emotion-focused • Meaning-focused*

  15. Meaning-Making Coping (Park, 2005) Global Meaning New Meaning Discrepancies? Stress Trauma Meaning Making Process Situational Meaning Yes No Growth Yes No

  16. Keys to Growth • Distress/Perceived Stress • Cognitive Processing/Rumination • + lead to growth • - leads to getting “stuck” • Social Support • Wisdom

  17. Who Experiences Growth? • Physical illness • AIDs • Cancer • Bereavement • Sexual Abuse • Terrorist Attacks • Veterans • Prevalence rates 30-90% (Tedechi & Calhoun, 1995)

  18. Study of Growth with Veterans • Moore, S., Varra, A., Michael, S., & Simpson, T. (2010). Stress-Related Growth, Positive Reframing, and Emotional Processing in the Prediction of Post-Trauma Functioning Among Veterans in Mental Health Treatment. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2 (2), 93-96. • Examined the relationship between SRG, PTSD, and coping • 103 female & 100 male trauma-exposed veterans in mental health treatment in VA Health Care System • Greater SRG was associated with greater use of emotional processing and positive reframing in the two weeks prior to the assessment. • SRG may add an important piece to our understanding of posttrauma functioning.

  19. Pre-trauma Characteristics Associated with Growth • Cognitive style • Optimism • Hopefulness • Creative thinkers • Openness (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1998).

  20. Important Points • Trauma always intrinsically negative. • Enduring the trauma leads to growth. • Growth is not absence of pain. • Growth and PTSD can coexist. • Not everyone experiences growth.

  21. “Nor deem the irrevocable past As wholly wasted, wholly vain. If rising on it’s wrecks at last To something nobler we attain” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  22. PTG, SPIRITUALITY & FORGIVENESS

  23. “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” - Helen Keller

  24. Biblical References to Enduring Suffering • Jesus • Job • Paul’s Letter to the Romans (5:3) • Suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope that does not disappoint. • Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians 4:8-9) • “afflicted but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted but not forsaken struck down, but not destroyed.

  25. C.S. Lewis (1961)A Grief Observed “You never know how much you really believe anything until it is a mater of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hand by the rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” (p. 34).

  26. Desmond Tutu, 2004 Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness. We all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos our of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now- in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally. The most unlikely person, the most improbable situation- these are all “transfigurable” – they can be turned into their glorious opposites. Indeed, God is transforming the world now- through us-because God loves us.

  27. Recent Relevant Research • Faith as • Meaning making system • Form of coping • Way to orient oneself to an in the world

  28. Empirical Associations between Religion, Spirituality & PTG • Faith as Frame for Meaning • Religious and Spiritual Practices • Religious Coping • Positive Religious Coping • Negative Religious Coping • Religious Orientation • Forgiveness as Religious Action

  29. Werdel (2010) Study • Participants • 429 adults • Age range (18-83) • Highly religious • Highly educated • Slightly more women • Predominately white (82.1%) • Self Report Data • Psych Data • 12 measures • Faith Maturity • Spiritual Struggles

  30. Data Analysis • Correlations • Hierarchical Multiple Regression & Partial F Tests • Moderators Growth Spirituality Personality

  31. Results • Strong relationships between posttraumatic growth and personality variables • Faith Maturity was the strongest predictor of Posttraumatic Growth • Spiritual Struggle strongest predictor of Positive Affect • Spiritual Struggle X Growth predict Positive Affect

  32. Limitations of the Study • Self report data • Volunteer sample of convenience • Cross-sectional in design • Correlational data

  33. Forgiveness

  34. Forgiveness Exercise • Take 5 minutes to think/journal about a time when you were forgiven. • Take 5 minutes to think/journal about a time when you forgave someone. • Generate a list of physical, psychological, spiritual reactions to forgiving/being forgiven. • Share in small groups your list.

  35. Quotes • “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you”--Lewis B. Smedes • “ If you really want to love, you need to learn to forgive” --Mother Teresa

  36. Richard Rhor, Failing Upward “ Every time God forgives us, God is saying God’s own rules do not matter as much as the relationship God wants to create with us.” (p. 57).

  37. What is Forgiveness ? • Forgiveness is about change in and for the self not the transgressor (Lyubormirsky, 2007) • Can be associated with self, other, or divine • “Pro-social change in one’s motivation toward an offending partner” (Pargament & Thorsen, 2000).

  38. What is Forgiveness? Condoning Pardoning Forgiveness Forgetting Restoration of Relationship Condoning Denying Excusing

  39. Psychological Reasons to Forgive • Happier • Healthier • More able to empathize • More agreeable • More serene • Helps people move on • Deepens our sense of shared humanity • Strengthens our personal relationships • Compels is into “we” mode of thinking • Lyubomirsky, 2007

  40. Forgiveness Research • Linked to Happiness after traumatic events • Life threatening illnesses & increased levels of forgiveness ( Peterson, 2006; Peterson, Park & Seligman, 2006). • Linked to the feeling that one is able to move on (Lyubromirsky, 2007). • Early links to growth.

  41. Research Studies • Peterson et al (2006) • 1739 adults • Varied traumas • Fisher (2002) • 226 adults • Oklahoma City Terrorist Attack 1995

  42. Role of Religion • Religious Perspectives on Forgiveness • Buddhist Tradition • Jewish Tradition • Catholic Tradition • Lord’s Prayer • Prayer of St. Francis

  43. Role of Religion • Laufer, Raz, Hamama, Levine, & Soloman (2009) • 1482 Jewish adolescents • Schultz, Tallman, & Altmaier (2010) • 146 adults

  44. Intervention Study • McCullough, Root, & Cohen (2006) • 304 undergraduate students • Directional Relationship between growth and forgiveness • Participants wrote for 20 minutes about either • Traumatic aspects of an interpersonal transgression • Benefits of an interpersonal transgression • Control topic not related to transgressions

  45. Creating Space for Forgiveness • Offering a culture of forgiveness ( Fisher, 2006) • Personal story of psychotherapist

  46. Practicing Forgiveness • Appreciate being forgiven • Imagine forgiveness • Write a letter of forgiveness • Practice empathy • Ruminate less • Remind yourself of forgiveness Lyubomirsky, 2007

  47. Strengthening Forgiveness • Let a grudge go everyday • When you feel annoyed, even with justification, take the high road and do not tell anyone how you feel • Write a forgiveness letter; do not send it; but read it everyday for a week (Peterson, 2006, p. 160)

  48. Models of Forgiveness

  49. PRACTICE

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