Ideally, initial grief, no matter how painful, will evolve and become integrated into the new life of the one who has suffered loss (Shear, 2012). To facilitate this growth, the intervention counselor should create an atmosphere where clients are encouraged to open up about their feelings, learn new ways to solve problems, and begin to withdraw their emotions …show more content…
It is important to understand not everyone responds to traumatic events the same way (Wright, 2011). Some people are more affected by traumatic events depending on their support system and how they perceive the trauma (Wright, 2011). Mitigating factors, according to Wright (2011), are: “…the person’s personality, spiritual or religious beliefs, culture and the meaning they ascribe to the trauma and event itself…” (p. 3050).
Once a person has been affected by trauma there are several different positive and negative coping strategies that victims use (Littleton, Horsley, John, & Nelson, 2007). According to Littleton et al. (2007), the coping strategies that victims use fall into the categories of problem focused coping, emotion focused coping, approach focused coping and avoidance focused coping. In a Meta-analysis of 199 studies involving 6,747 individuals who had been through trauma, Littleton et al. (2007) found that avoidance coping consistently led to an increase in psychological distress, problem focused coping had a significant relationship with less distress, and neither approach or emotion focused coping had a significant relationship with distress. The data in the study indicates that it is important for the victim of a trauma to regain some sort of control in their lives by actively …show more content…
According to Hollander-Goldfein et al. (2007), recent trauma research indicates that finding meaning in survival is a crucial element for victims of trauma in recovering from the traumatic experience and moving forward with life. With this information, crisis interventionist should focus on helping the survivor regain at least a modicum of control in their upside down world and find meaning in the midst of loss. According to Herman, the process of recovery begins with instilling a sense of safety, continues with giving meaningful context to the crisis, and ends with helping victims reconnect with life and the future (as cited in Hollander-Goldfein et al., 2007, p.