Your Turn
Mother and son, mother cooking with children: Getty Images.
Post-Traumatic Growth How local parents found the good in 2020. By Kim Fleischman
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ach December, my social media feed fills with negative sentiments about the year we’re about to leave behind. I remember seeing numerous posts at the end of 2019, with everyone hoping that the coming year would be better. Recently, I’ve been thinking that as 2020 comes to a close, there will certainly be no shortage of “good riddance” sentiments. I was talking about this with a friend, who said, “Everyone seems to be aware of post-traumatic stress, but no one ever seems to talk about post-traumatic growth.” That got me thinking. As we recognize that 2020 has been extremely difficult, what is some of the good that resulted from the bad? Natalie Johnson, clinical director and therapist at Rocky Mountain Counseling Collective, says that since the onset of the
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Colorado Parent | December 2020
pandemic, many people have felt like their world was flipped upside down. “I have observed a significant increase in the number of individuals experiencing trauma in a variety of ways,” says Johnson. “The simplest definition of trauma is anything that causes extreme distress. And this year, there seems to be an endless surplus of disruptive situations contributing to very high levels of distress on a widespread level.” But Johnson says it doesn’t have to stop there. “Although it’s difficult not to get stuck in the challenging emotions resulting from trauma, the encouraging news is that we can experience positive post-traumatic change and growth.” Post-traumatic growth is generally defined as experiencing positive change as a result of negative or challenging experiences/adversity. “While trauma resulting from the pandemic might be more subtle than something like experiencing a
war or terrorist attack, it can still affect our kids in lasting ways,” says Elizabeth Easton, regional clinical director for child & adolescent services at Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center. “But, we have the extraordinary capacity as human beings to find meaning in the challenges we overcome. Often that meaning can foster incredible growth, change, and resiliency in the face of future struggles.” I asked families how they have experienced growth in the face of intense challenges this year. Here’s what I found out. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR The most common feedback that I received from parents was that, as a result of closures and restrictions that kept them close to home, they finally got to know their neighbors better. Christy Schaefer, Erie mother of three and founder of the family activity website,