Working with Soul
Life through death: exploring the relationship between post-traumatic growth and spirituality

This event is hosted by the Spirituality division and will support you to critically explore the concept of post traumatic growth and its relationship with spirituality. It’ll also consider how spirituality might be a way to support clients emerging from traumatic experiences or help to bypass them.

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Building on a book chapter I wrote on the subject of post-traumatic growth and spirituality (Kiyimba, 2017), this presentation will consider the relationships between trauma, spirituality and growth through the lens of the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. By overlaying an account of the historical trauma of colonisation, I will invite delegates to consider how to balance grief and hope when engaged in spiritually safe practice with their clients.  

Kiyimba, N. (2017). Trauma and spiritual growth. What counsellors and spiritual directors can learn from each other, 138-156. 

The session will enable members to: 

• to present a coherent narrative that explains the challenges of spiritual trauma, and spiritual recovery. 
• to increase awareness of how to balance the dialectic of grief and hope post-trauma. 
• to consider the analogy of a river as a metaphor for the spiritual journey, and to facilitate an ability to use this metaphor with clients to discuss their spiritual journey in the light of previous traumas and losses.

Confrontation with the reality of death can lead to insecurity and intense emotion, but beyond fear, anxiety and depression, lies the possibility of a renewal of existential courage. How can when we face up to the paradoxes of human existence and renew our commitment to the future, after we have encountered the frontier of life? 

This session will look at the philosophical wisdom and psychological knowledge that can enrich our work with people who have been confronted with the limits and boundaries of life and for whom each day will hold both enormous challenges and great new discoveries and consolations.  

The session will enable members to: 

• To question the trauma-based approaches to near death experiences and get acquainted with an existential way of working with such extreme experiences.  
• to learn about ancient philosophical ideas that can enrich life for those who have come through great suffering
• to combine these with the most cutting-edge research in psychology and neurophysiology.

The session will describe my research into the relationship between intense psychological turmoil and a shift in identity that is equivalent to spiritual awakening. This is a sudden and dramatic form of post-traumatic growth. Transformation through turmoil (TTT) creates a new outlook and attitude, heightened appreciation, meaning and purpose, heightened empathy and altruism, and an intensified connection to nature. It can happen after bereavement, a diagnosis of cancer, or a long period of depression or addiction and other contexts. I will describe the nature of this transformation, provide some examples from my research, and explain the reasons why it occurs, including factors such as the dissolution of psychological attachments leading to ego-dissolution. We will examine some of the challenges that this shift may bring, including confusion and psychological disturbance, and the importance of self-understanding and acceptance.

The session will enable members to:

• understanding of the relationship between intense psychological turmoil and a dramatic and ongoing shift in identity
• understanding why this shift can be interpreted as a spiritual awakening
• understanding of the factors that facilitate this transformation
• understanding of the some of challenges that arise from this shift
• understanding why TTT is not equivalent to breakdown or psychosis