This study examines how people who have survived trauma have encountered healing following spiritual experiences. The significance of this research lies in its unique findings, contributing to the body of literature on trauma recovery. Qualitative methodology and thematic analysis were used to explore the research question that guided this study. Six individuals who had survived traumatic events participated in narrative interviews and were asked to tell the story of how their spiritual experiences impacted their healing from trauma. Findings show that these participants‘ spiritual experiences helped them to cultivate a foundation to return to in future moments of challenge, impacted the body‘s healing, and served as a guide. Further research in the field is suggested, including investigating how experiences with Kundalini energy impact trauma recovery, the relationship between spiritual experiences and physical healing, and how people from diverse cultural backgrounds experience trauma recovery in the wake of a spiritual experience. / Graduate

Novel: You & I. 'You & I' is a coming-of-age tale tied up in the themes of trauma, memory and storytelling. It follows sixteen-year-old Esther, who is sent to live on the fictional Cornish island of Little Wimbish following the disappearance of her bipolar mother. Once on the island where her mother grew up, the damaged and reclusive Esther finds herself caught up in the lives, history and folklore of the Wimbish community - not to mention the mystery of her father's identity. As the story progresses and Esther becomes more invested in the fairy tale escapes promised by the island she now calls home, the voice switches back and forth between the second and first person - and we begin to suspect that our narrator may have inherited her mother's illness. This is a novel concerned with how we tell stories - about ourselves, our histories, and the places we live - and why. Essay: The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Turning Trauma into Narrative in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain, and John Banville's The Sea. How do we recover from trauma, and what role can storytelling play in the recovery process? This essay investigates the notion that in Anne Enright's The Gathering, Niall Williams' History of the Rain and John Banville's The Sea, each narrator carries out an attempt at recovery, enacted through a written recollection of their past traumas. Taking inspiration from various trauma theorists and psychologists, along with writer and trauma survivor Edward St Aubyn, this essay lays out the necessary steps which must be taken in order to integrate trauma into one's life story. By writing down their trauma, constructing a narrative which allows for a certain amount of invention, facing up to the dirtier and more difficult aspects of their experiences, and finally, sharing the finished narrative with another person, the trauma survivor may facilitate the beginnings of a recovery.

Peace and conflict studies arose as a response to the human experience of violence, with an intention towards finding possibilities for nonviolent ways of relating. These possibilities, however, tend to be preoccupied with social conflict, reconciliation, and recovery as taking place solely within the realm of human beings, thereby creating an ontology that renders nature silent. This thesis asks why it is so difficult to attend to natural contexts and the more-than-human world in peace and conflict studies. This research suggests that the shift in experience that comes through connection with nature opens possibilities for peacebuilding and recovery from conflict. Thus, while it explores responses to experiences of violence, this thesis also works to articulate an understanding of how conflict and peacebuilding take place within a shared, interconnected and interdependent global ecosystem. The core of this inquiry is experience-centred narrative research within the phenomenological interpretive framework provided by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This research explores the personal experience stories of veterans suffering from stress and post-traumatic distress from their military training and combat exposure. All of the veterans regard their personal recovery from stress and traumatic experiences as intimately tied to their nature experiences. These experiences are further illuminated by supporting interviews, personal narrative interludes, other stories from the edges of violence, and theories and praxis in ecology, ecopsychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Through exploring themes of sensory experience, safety, sense of purpose, relationships, basic needs, and regained humanity, this research culminates in the remembrance that as human beings, we are nature, and the insight that it is our (human) nature that impels and enables us to reach out and relate with others and with the more-than-human world. This central insight holds profound implications for peace and conflict studies, which focuses on peacebuilding through recognition of common humanity and conflict transformation through changed relationships. The thesis concludes by exploring possibilities and implications for bringing nature to consciousness in peace and conflict studies and for revising theoretical and practical frameworks to re-embed peace and conflict studies in the everyday world—the world beyond the boardroom or negotiating table, and the world that sustains all life on earth.

Peace and conflict studies arose as a response to the human experience of violence, with an intention towards finding possibilities for nonviolent ways of relating. These possibilities, however, tend to be preoccupied with social conflict, reconciliation, and recovery as taking place solely within the realm of human beings, thereby creating an ontology that renders nature silent. This thesis asks why it is so difficult to attend to natural contexts and the more-than-human world in peace and conflict studies. This research suggests that the shift in experience that comes through connection with nature opens possibilities for peacebuilding and recovery from conflict. Thus, while it explores responses to experiences of violence, this thesis also works to articulate an understanding of how conflict and peacebuilding take place within a shared, interconnected and interdependent global ecosystem. The core of this inquiry is experience-centred narrative research within the phenomenological interpretive framework provided by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This research explores the personal experience stories of veterans suffering from stress and post-traumatic distress from their military training and combat exposure. All of the veterans regard their personal recovery from stress and traumatic experiences as intimately tied to their nature experiences. These experiences are further illuminated by supporting interviews, personal narrative interludes, other stories from the edges of violence, and theories and praxis in ecology, ecopsychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Through exploring themes of sensory experience, safety, sense of purpose, relationships, basic needs, and regained humanity, this research culminates in the remembrance that as human beings, we are nature, and the insight that it is our (human) nature that impels and enables us to reach out and relate with others and with the more-than-human world. This central insight holds profound implications for peace and conflict studies, which focuses on peacebuilding through recognition of common humanity and conflict transformation through changed relationships. The thesis concludes by exploring possibilities and implications for bringing nature to consciousness in peace and conflict studies and for revising theoretical and practical frameworks to re-embed peace and conflict studies in the everyday world—the world beyond the boardroom or negotiating table, and the world that sustains all life on earth.

Trauma recovery in the context of power imbalance.

No description available.

Trauma recovery and post trauma growth are two desirable outcomes of a traumatic event. Meaning-making and narrative development are two processes that support both trauma recovery and post trauma growth. The way in which we make meaning or develop stories about the events in our lives however, are governed by socio-cultural contexts. Social constructivism emphasizes that the way in which individuals think, feel, and act are engrained in her being early on by the social and cultural networks that surround her. Therefore, even though an individual may think that she is generating a thought or making a choice, these processes have already been influenced by socio-cultural contexts long before she learned how to speak or formulate a worldview. This study aimed to examine the lived experiences of women who have been through intimate partner violence, tracing their journey towards trauma recovery and post trauma growth, and trying to find how and the extent to which their journeys were affected by socio-cultural contexts. This study takes a social constructivist lens that emphasizes the effects of our socio-cultural environment on individual meaning-making, narrative development, and decision making post trauma. The results of the study indicate that socio-cultural contexts play a significant role in individual responses to trauma like intimate partner violence, and there are socio-cultural components that can facilitate trauma recovery and post trauma growth. / Doctor of Philosophy / When human beings experience adverse events in life, they can develop a traumatic response to the event. Traumatic response however, is just one possibility. Sometimes individuals who have been through events that have led to a trauma response can also experience resilience, recovery, and even growth. The way in which human beings respond is not only in their power but is also influenced by their environment. Socio-cultural contexts that surround us influence the way in which we make meaning of life events and develop stories or narratives regarding those events. This purpose of this study was to find whether socio-cultural contexts affected women who had experienced intimate partner violence in their meaning-making and narrative development, and how these influences played out in their decision making process post trauma. The study intended to find to what extent trauma recovery and post trauma growth could be influenced by socio-cultural contexts. Additionally, the study wanted to explore how professional counselors may contribute to survivor’s journeys. The results indicate that socio-cultural contexts deeply influence the process of meaning-making and narrative development, thereby affecting trauma recovery and post trauma growth. Additionally, results indicate that professional counselors can play an essential role in facilitating processes that lead to recovery and growth post trauma.

Violence against women and children is a pervasive challenge across the globe. Research has shown that survivors of interpersonal violence, such as child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, may develop a complex form of post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied by, for example, difficulties in regulating emotions and relating to others. Additional mental health and social problems contribute to survivors' long-term impairment. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the key elements and processes that facilitate trauma recovery. The majority of research places survivors as individuals at the core of understanding trauma and recovery, which makes it an intrapsychic problem focused on, for example, the individual's cognitive bias, maladaptive interpersonal behaviour, or emotion dysregulation which need repairing, rather than considering appropriately the role of context, external factors and social processes. Thus, trauma recovery may be more complicated. The current study explored key elements and processes of trauma recovery in female adult survivors with a focus on emotional and interpersonal skills, within the narratives of individuals constructing their own recovery within an interpersonal context. Fifteen female adult survivors were recruited from a statutory clinical service and a third-sector community project. Participants were interviewed individually, and data were analysed qualitatively using grounded theory. The study constructed a framework of four key components. Women survivors initially disengaged from feelings, other people and themselves (1), gradually made hidden experiences visible (2) and examined these (3), and eventually reconstructed their reality (4). Although not always a linear process, this framework revealed a transition from self-guided to supported self-management. Women survivors sought out relationships, were impacted by relationships, and these relationships changed the way survivors responded. Thus, female trauma survivors reconstructed abuse, trauma and identity through various supportive others. Similarly, female survivors reframed emotional and interpersonal difficulties and gradually managed these through relationships. Future research as well as theories, practices and policies need to consider the multifaceted and relational nature of interpersonal trauma recovery. Guidelines and practices, for instance, could include community-focused strategies that provide a larger network of support to survivors and, thus, would offer multiple opportunities to experience positive interactions. Equally, mandatory training of health care staff about interpersonal violence and subsequent trauma as well as training in relating positively to survivors would make a real difference.

A qualitative approach was taken to explore Canadian Congolese refugees’ experience of war trauma recovery. Six volunteers (three men and three women), who self-identified as traumatized by their experience of war in Congo and had lived in Canada for less than ten years, participated in in-depth interviews. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach to analysis, a core construct of Surviving War was identified. A hierarchical model of surviving war was developed that subsumed all other categories. By extrapolating principles from this model, a theory of Surviving War was developed which identifies factors that contribute to surviving war. Limitations of the current research are presented along with suggestions for further research. Recommendations for professionals working with a refugee population are also presented.

A qualitative approach was taken to explore Canadian Congolese refugees’ experience of war trauma recovery. Six volunteers (three men and three women), who self-identified as traumatized by their experience of war in Congo and had lived in Canada for less than ten years, participated in in-depth interviews. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach to analysis, a core construct of Surviving War was identified. A hierarchical model of surviving war was developed that subsumed all other categories. By extrapolating principles from this model, a theory of Surviving War was developed which identifies factors that contribute to surviving war. Limitations of the current research are presented along with suggestions for further research. Recommendations for professionals working with a refugee population are also presented.