Professionals’ understanding and knowledge of growth after trauma

Abstract

Even though the idea of growth after trauma has been present in earlier ideologies of humanistic and existential psychology, this concept remains an elusive topic amongst therapeutic practitioners (Joseph, 2015). This research examines Maltese professionals’ understanding of growth following trauma. Using a qualitative approach, semistructured interviews were carried out to six participants. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and five themes were extracted. On comparing the results to the literature, it was concluded that professionals are knowledgeable about posttraumatic growth however they do not make a distinction between treating trauma and facilitating growth. Furthermore, their knowledge is not dependent on their training background, but depends on their own research. The results show that more scientific research needs to be conducted on effective therapies to aid growth in a therapeutic setting.