Post Traumatic Growth for Mental Health Professionals

Time: 1:00pm-4:00pm

Location: Virtual

Instructor: Ann Marie Roepke, Ph.D., Evoke Training and Consulting, PLLC

CE credits: 3 CE's (pending)

Course Description:

Adversity can lead to great suffering and also, in some situations, to positive transformation: Posttraumatic growth (PTG) refers to the positive psychological changes that can emerge as a result of struggling with adversity and trauma. These positive changes are different than the absence of, or recovery from, posttraumatic stress disorder. In recent years there have been great efforts to better understand and foster PTG in individuals who have experienced trauma and loss. In this half-day training, participants will learn a research-informed perspective on what PTG is and how we might be able to support its development in the Veterans we serve in clinical practice. Training participants will have the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways including lecture, demonstrations, discussions, and experiential learning activities designed to offer a richer understanding of the phenomenon of posttraumatic growth.

Learning objectives. At the end of this training participants will be able to:

1. Define posttraumatic growth and differentiate it from resilience and recovery from PTSD
2. Explain five (5) common types of posttraumatic growth
3. Describe three (3) factors that make posttraumatic growth more likely to occur
4. Explain the risks and benefits of trying to foster posttraumatic growth in clinical practice

References:

Adler, J. M., & Schwaba, T. (2024). Beyond “post,”“traumatic,”“growth,” and prediction in research on posttraumatic growth. American Psychologist, 79(8), 1227-1240.

Kadri, A., Gracey, F., & Leddy, A. (2025). What factors are associated with posttraumatic growth in older adults? A systematic review. Clinical Gerontologist, 48(1), 4-21.

Rhodes, J. R., Tedeschi, R. G., Moore, B. A., Alldredge, C. T., & Elkins, G. R. (2024). Posttraumatic growth-oriented peer-based training among US veterans: Evaluation of post-intervention and long-term follow-up outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1-13.