The experience of post traumatic growth amongst road traffic accidents victims who have completed EMDR treatment: A status report on research

According to Tedeschi & Calhoun (1995; 2004 and 2006), Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) consists of five ‘domains’: discovery of new possibilities in life; improvements in relating to others; an increased sense of personal strength; greater appreciation of life and spiritual changes. The first author’s experience of treating Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) victims with Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR) suggests that the experience of PTG is far wider and more complicated than Tedeschi & Calhoun’s domains. This paper reports on the current status of a study whose aim is to identify PTG that may be occurring at any point from the immediate aftermath of an RTA through to completion of EMDR. The study so far consists of 11 interviews utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. So far well over 50 PTG themes have emerged although only the first hermeneutical analysis has been completed on the interviews analysed so far, it is currently difficult, therefore, to establish the degree of ‘theme overlap’. However, new themes include growth ‘by proxy’ (growth in those who have come into contact with the participants, but who have not themselves been traumatised by the RTA); somewhat paradoxically, ‘pre-trauma growth’ apparently activated by a subsequent RTA; and a ‘cascade’ of growth attributed to events subsequent to the initial trauma (such as the EMDR and the EMDR therapist). Some implications of these themes are also discussed, particularly in relation to EMDR.

Conference

English

David C. Blore
Derek Farrell
Collette Clifford

Blore, D. C., Farrell, D., & Clifford, C. (2008, June). The experience of post traumatic growth amongst road traffic accidents victims who have completed EMDR treatment: A status report on research. Poster presented at the 9th EMDR Europe Association Conference, London, England