Recent trauma research has begun to investigate the possibility of posttraumatic growth. However, most studies have investigated posttraumatic growth using quantitative methods and thus have neglected people's subjective experience and have left unexamined post-traumatic growth in persons with visible impairment. To fill some of these gaps, the authors examined the process of recovery and posttraumatic growth using a qualitative method. They interviewed 10 participants with visible impairment from chronic illness or serious injury using a semistructured interview. Using a grounded theory data analysis procedure, the authors developed a stage model of trauma and recovery from the interviews. The stages that emerged are thematically entitled Apprehension, Diagnosis and Devastation, Choosing to Go On, Building a Way to Live, and Integration of the Trauma and Expansion of the Self. The authors discuss limitations of the study and clinical implications for psychological counseling with this population.

This article presents a model for developing treatment strategies for multicontextual trauma-trauma in complex contexts in which no evidence-based treatment is available. The model conceptualizes trauma as shattering the assumptive world, and it conceptualizes recovery as reconstructing the assumptive world. The reconstruction process occurs in 3 stages: (a) safety, (b) reprocessing, and (c) integration, within which 3 issues recur-(a) strength, (b) connection, and (c) meaning. The article analyzes the recovery process for 2 medical illnesses-acquired physical disability and stem cell transplant for multiple myeloma-and presents guidelines for using the model to make treatment decisions.