Abstract
Despite the human capacity to survive and adapt, traumatic experiences can cause alterations in health, attitudes and behaviors, environmental and interpersonal functioning, and spiritual balance such that the memory of an event or a set of events taints all other experiences. The BE SMART (Become Empowered: Symptom Management for Abuse and Recovery from Trauma) group psychoeducation program is a 12-week course designed for both men and women to learn wellness coping principles in recovering from the aftermaths of trauma and abuse. The course is based on the Murphy–Moller Wellness Model [Murphy, M. F., & Moller, M. D. (1996). The Three R's Program: A Wellness Approach to Rehabilitation of Neurobiological Disorders. The International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research, 3(1), 308–317] and the Trauma Reframing Therapy [Rice, M. J., & Moller, M. D. (2003). Wellness Outcomes of Trauma Psychoeducation. Podium presentation at the 2003 Meeting of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Atlanta, Georgia. October].
DESPITE THE HUMAN capacity to survive and adapt, traumatic experiences can cause alterations in health, attitudes and behaviors, environmental and interpersonal functioning, and spiritual balance such that the memory of an event or a set of events taints all other experiences. Unresolved trauma can generate feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and entrapment. When the emotional devastation created by traumatic wounds is not healed, psychiatric disabilities such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder (DID), substance abuse, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, and psychotic disorders can develop (Evans & Sullivan, 1995, Goodman et al., 1999, Gunderson & Chu, 1993, Hryvniak & Rosse, 1989, Mazzeo & Espelage, 2002, McLean & Gallop, 2003 and Read & Ross, 2003). These disorders can be collectively referred to as trauma-related disorders.
Consequences of unresolved trauma may result in a negative impact on adult cognitive functioning (van der Kolk, McFarlane, & Weisaeth, 1996), creating a myriad of problems, including difficulty with relationships, inability to sustain employment, and problems in parenting. The accompanying physiological changes (Bonne et al., 2001, Bremner, 1999, Damasio, 1999 and Sapolsky, 2002) contribute to medical comorbidity and affect the ability to complete activities of daily living (Famularo et al., 1996 and Heitkemper et al., 2001). In addition, the presence of trauma has been shown to complicate and exacerbate both emergent and chronic psychiatric symptoms (den Herder & Redner, 1991 and Ross, 2000).
Psychotherapeutic treatments such as exposure therapy (Foa & Kozak, 1986 and Paunovic, 2003), cognitive–behavioral therapy (Bisson et al., 2004 and Harvey et al., 2003), group therapy (Barlow, 2001, Morgan & Cummings, 1999 and Wolfsdorf & Zlotnick, 2001), eye movement desensitization repatterning (Smith, 2003 and Wilson et al., 1997), and dialectical behavioral therapy (Lanius & Tuhan, 2003) have been investigated and found to be helpful in promoting various levels of recovery from selected target symptoms of trauma-related disorders. None of the existing research demonstrates therapeutic interventions related to recovery from trauma and abuse with a targeted effect on levels of wellness.
