Focusing manner and posttraumatic growth

Abstract

Recent scholarship in the person-centred experiential approach has theorised how organismic valuing might be an important process factor in the development of posttraumatic growth. In a test of this prediction we investigated the association between Gendlin's focusing and posttraumatic growth in 87 participants. All completed measures of focusing attitudes, posttraumatic stress, and posttraumatic growth. The results showed that higher scores on focusing attitudes were significantly associated with lower scores on posttraumatic stress (r = -.39, p < .001), and higher scores on posttraumatic growth (lowest r=.32, p<.001), and that the associations with posttraumatic growth remained even with scores on posttraumatic stress partialled out (lowest r = .33, p < .001). Implications of these findings are discussed for therapeutic work with trauma survivors. Specifically, the results provide support that the use of Gendlin's focusing and/or focusing evocative language may be effective in supporting those who suffer from severe and chronic trauma-related problems. These results provide sufficient support to warrant further clinical research using more sophisticated experimental approaches to test whether therapeutic work using focusing is able to promote posttraumatic growth.

Post-traumatic growth from grief – a narrative literature review

“…One factor was social support, matching other research into suicide-related grief (Levi-Belz, 2020). The study also identified problemfocused coping as beneficial for PTG, supporting the assertion of Zwiercan and Joseph (2018) that using Gendlin's (1996) focusing method of person-centred therapy can help bereaved clients by directing therapy sessions to address their grief. This counselling approach has proven effective with other forms of trauma (Rappaport, 2010;Santen, 2014).…”

Posttraumatic growth as a process and an outcome: Vexing problems and paradoxes seen from the perspective of humanistic psychology.

“…For example, it is specifically hypothesized that PTG will be facilitated in those who experience supportive social environments characterized by Rogers's (1959) description of necessary and sufficient conditions (Payne, Liebling-Kalifani, & Joseph, 2007), or in more contemporary language, autonomy, competence, and relatedness support (Scrignaro, Barni, & Magrin, 2011). Those with more supportive social environments develop greater unconditional self-regard (Flanagan, Patterson, Hume, & Joseph, 2015), intrinsic motivation (Murphy, Demetriou, & Joseph, 2015), and organismic valuing (Zwiercan & Joseph, 2018). In the following section, I examine, through the lens of the OVP theory, some of the contemporary questions occupying researchers in the field of PTG.…”

Focusing, the felt sense, and meaning in life

“…Reviewing 19 studies, Aoki and Ikemi (2014) find that this focusing attitude is associated with lower psychological distress and depression, and higher self-actualization, self-affirmation, and resilience. In a small study with 87 participants who had recently experienced adversity in their lives, Zwiercan and Joseph (2018) show how this focusing attitude is associated with less traumatic stress and more posttraumatic growth. Importantly, in their own study (N=106), Aiko and Ikemi (2014) find that people who are certified as focusing trainers or focusing-oriented therapists show higher levels of the focusing attitude, hinting that focusing training might help people to contact the felt sense on a daily basis.…”