Episode 44: Dr Richard Tedeschi
How suffering leads to positive post-traumatic growth
healthHackers episode 44 with Dr Richard Tedeschi, Professor Emeritus of the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, and Distinguished Chair at Boulder Crest Institute for Post-Traumatic Growth in Virginia
In this episode, you’ll hear:
what post-traumatic growth (PTG) is, and how to spot it
how to increase your chances of growing positively after suffering
what you can do before and during a trauma to help you cope
how many of us are likely to experience positive growth after a trauma
advice on speaking to a traumatized friend or loved one
what kinds of people are more likely to experience PTG
Dr Tedeschi’s tips for those worrying about the future during the COVID-19 crisis
Is it true that what doesn’t break you makes you stronger?
Dr Richard Tedeschi knows trauma. The eminent, award-winning psychologist knows its painful characteristics and the ways in which it affects his clients, but he also knows all about the experience that comes later. An experience marked by a positive transformation that certain people go through, while others don’t. He wrote the book on it. Three books, in fact.
“People discover, as they go through traumatic events and their aftermath, that they're stronger than they thought they were,” according to Dr Richard Tedeschi
The concept is named ‘post-traumatic growth’ (PTG). A term that was coined by Dr Tedeschi and his colleague, Laurence Calhoun, at the University of North Carolina in the 1990s after the pair recorded and analyzed interviews with trauma survivors. Combing through the quotes from these interviews and subjecting them to statistical analyses, the pair spotted five common areas of PTG.
The first? “Personal strength,” Dr Tedeschi told me in healthHackers episode 44.
“People discover as they go through traumatic events and their aftermath, that they're stronger than they thought they were. That they've endured things that maybe before these events, they didn't think they could handle. And sometimes they say things like, ‘you know, if I can handle this, I can handle anything.’”
The second area is “appreciation of life.”
Dr Tedeschi described this as: “people have more gratitude than they had before, where they recognize that life has a lot to offer that they might have overlooked before and taken it for granted.”
The third, is “new possibilities,” he said, explaining that in the aftermath of a trauma, some people “develop a sense that there are opportunities that they have now that they might not have seen before.”
“Maybe they're physically disabled. There are things that just aren't the same anymore. So they have to go in a different direction that opens up new possibilities,” he added.
The fourth domain focuses on changes in relationships with others that often involve “a deeper emotional connection with people, more compassion and empathy. As trauma survivors, they realize how hard life can be,” he told me.
The last common area of PTG identified in findings by the two psychologists from interviews with trauma survivors relates to spiritual and existential growth.
“Maybe they start to address questions about life, death and the afterlife. This is forcing them to think almost philosophically or theologically, in some ways that maybe they didn't pay much attention to before.”
When I asked Dr Tedeschi how many of us will come through trauma with such positive growth as described above, he said the data suggests “maybe about half to three quarters.”
Trauma forces some people “to think almost philosophically or theologically” in ways that they hadn’t before, Dr Tedeschi explained
An important point to bear in mind is that PTG isn’t an end point or an achievement, but rather “something that we experience and that we continue to engage in throughout life. It's a continuing process. So it's not like we get there. But we learn and we develop new ways of living,” he told me.
When recording healthHackers episode 44, most of America was under some type of lockdown in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. I asked Dr Tedeschi what he would want those of us who are worried about the future to keep in mind to get through this period in the most positive way.
“We're going to get to the other side of this and there are going to be changes that we'll notice in ourselves and how we live as a result of this and I think we have to be good at recognizing that some of these changes will be potentially positive.”
For an example, Dr Tedeschi cited the increase in respect for “people that we're counting on to help us through this,” like those who are providing food, working in grocery stores, doing deliveries, staff “putting themselves on the line” in hospitals and clinics, and cleaning teams who are doing jobs to keep us safe.
“And maybe we're spending more time together, kind of huddled up in our homes. Some of us are enjoying how we're more connected. Maybe we're cooking more and we're finding ourselves better able to make some good meals. There are all kinds of possibilities in this. So we have to be good at paying attention to how we can handle this well.”
Dr Tedeschi is now Professor Emeritus of the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, and holds the position of Distinguished Chair at the Boulder Crest Institute for Post-Traumatic Growth in Virginia. I wondered what had surprised him the most from all of his findings and work across his career to date.
“I’m always surprised by how remarkable people are,” he told me.
“I see people who have experienced all kinds of traumas… and are able to show us and teach us better how to live life well. They’re heroes to me.”
You can find Dr Tedeschi at bouldercrestinstitute.org. See his books below.
Transformed by Trauma: Stories of Posttraumatic Growth (2020)
Posttraumatic Growth: Theory, Research, and Applications (2018) at
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315527444
The Posttraumatic Growth Workbook (2016) at