Spirituality and resilience in trauma victims

Abstract

The way people process stressors is critical in determining whether or not trauma will be experienced. Some clinical and neuroimaging findings suggest that posttraumatic stress disorder patients experience difficulty in synthesizing the traumatic experience in a comprehensive narrative. Religiousness and spirituality are strongly based on a personal quest for understanding of questions about life and meaning. Building narratives based on healthy perspectives may facilitate the integration of traumatic sensorial fragments in a new cognitive synthesis, thus working to decrease post-traumatic symptoms. Given the potential effects of spiritual and religious beliefs on coping with traumatic events, the study of the role of spirituality in fostering resilience in trauma survivors may advance our understanding of human adaptation to trauma. © 2007 Blanton-Peale Institute.