{"id":28856,"date":"2015-08-03T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=28856"},"modified":"2024-05-09T13:40:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:40:54","slug":"stages-of-trauma-recovery-what-it-means-to-be-a-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/stages-of-trauma-recovery-what-it-means-to-be-a-survivor-0803155","title":{"rendered":"Stages of Trauma Recovery: What It Means to Be a ‘Survivor’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GoodTherapyI was recently reading a blog post and noticed that someone in the comment section asked the question: \u201cWhat does it mean when we refer to someone as a survivor?\u201d We hear about \u201csurvivors” of domestic violence<\/a>\u00a0and \u201csurvivors” of sexual assault<\/a>\u00a0all the time, but what does it mean when we refer to people in this way? I thought this was a good question to explore.<\/p>\n

The description provided by the National Crime Victim Law Institute states a survivor is \u201ca person who endures adversity, moves through it, and perseveres, or a person with resiliency who remains undefeated.\u201d I like that definition. Below, I describe how this definition applies\u00a0to the four stages that trauma<\/a> survivors might experience as they heal.<\/p>\n

Stage 1: Silence
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

People who experience adverse situations, such as a traumatic event involving actual or threatened danger, face incredible challenges. The initial stage following a traumatic event is often a time of silence for the victim. It\u2019s common for recently victimized people to refuse to talk about what happened. This may be due to a number of things, including stigma, isolation<\/a>, shame<\/a>, guilt<\/a>, confusion, or denial<\/a>\u00a0about the event.<\/p>\n

A person emerging from trauma may have low\u00a0self-esteem<\/a> at first and may feel overwhelmed<\/a> and disconnected from the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Stage 2: Victimhood
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\n\t

Find a Therapist<\/a><\/h2>\n\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\tAdvanced Search<\/a>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>Eventually, the traumatized self<\/a> may start to long for change as the ongoing suffering interferes with daily life tasks and a need to grow and recover begins to form. As this need grows, it allows the person to begin exploring ways to move through the trauma. According to available research, there is often a tug-of-war taking place within the individual between a need to be safe and protect emotions<\/a> and a need to grow and confront the traumatic memories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The person may feel compelled to talk openly with everyone about what happened and the suffering he or she\u00a0experienced. Some people will likely be more willing than others to listen. For people working their way through the stage of victimization, having someone to listen and support them as they process the event can be critical to their ability to move forward into survivorhood. Many people find support groups<\/a> helpful during this stage and may seek counseling<\/a> or other support.<\/p>\n

Stage 3: Survivorhood
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once a person\u00a0processes the traumatic\u00a0event\u00a0and continues transitioning away from the victim experience, he or she\u00a0often begins identifying as a survivor. During this stage, a person has had an opportunity to talk about his or her experience and has gained some sense of clarity. He or she\u00a0may begin to identify the ways in which he\/she\u00a0persevered and the strengths that helped make\u00a0moving forward possible. The person hasn\u2019t forgotten the event, but he or she has a greater understanding about what the event means and the impact it has made on his or her life.<\/p>\n

Reaching the stage of survivorhood doesn\u2019t happen overnight. It may take months or even years to work through the victim stage and reach the point where one feels that the wounds are healing and a sense of relief is possible. Also, the process of healing is not linear. Survivors take one step forward and two steps back sometimes, and moving through it all and persevering may coincide with feeling hopeful<\/a> one day and damaged and wounded the next. People in the survivor stage tend to spend less and less time feeling wounded as they continue learning new tools and recognizing themselves as resilient.<\/p>\n

Stage 4: Thriving and Transcendence<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Most people I\u2019ve worked with seem\u00a0content reaching the stage of survivorhood. They feel like they are managing challenges better and have a greater awareness about themselves and their experiences. Other people, The person hasn\u2019t forgotten the event, but he or she has a greater understanding about what the event means and the impact it has made on his or her life.<\/span>however, have told me they\u2019re not done growing, and some of them have even said they don\u2019t want to be called a survivor.<\/p>\n

This group becomes the thriving group, people who transformed their experiences into a meaningful personal narrative and will not be defined by their adversity. They feel healed and safe, and take appropriate risks in seeking connection with others, such as asking a new neighbor out for coffee. They don\u2019t feel the need to tell their stories unless it benefits someone else. “Thrivers” feel motivated to take part in the community and may seek out volunteer opportunities or other ways to help others.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is only one model of healing and one definition of what it means to be a survivor. Every person who experiences a distressing event may\u00a0have his or her own ideas about what it means to pull through a traumatic\u00a0time or event.<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matsakis, A. (2003). The rape recovery handbook: Step-by-step help for survivors of sexual assault<\/em>. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be a survivor of domestic violence or other trauma? These four stages of trauma recovery explore a deeper meaning of the term “survivor.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2951,"featured_media":43323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,623],"tags":[31,396,53,226,25,385],"class_list":["post-28856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-issues-treated","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-domestic-violence","tag-healing-story","tag-posttraumatic-stress","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-sexual-abuse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2951"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}