Trauma and Meaning

People who experience traumatic events often report a subsequent loss of a sense of meaning in their lives. When working with a client who has suffered trauma, paying attention to meaning not only identifies any damaged beliefs, values, or goals, but also highlights the strengths and social support that will help rebuild the client's sense of meaning.

In Trauma and Meaning, Dr. Jeanne M. Slattery demonstrates her meaning-making approach with a woman who has experienced loss and violence in her life. Watch as Dr. Slattery first creates a place of safety for the client, allowing her to tell her story and begin to develop a new sense of meaning in her life.

In addition to this demonstration session, Dr. Slattery also answers questions about her approach, identifying it as a method that can be used in combination with any therapeutic orientation as a powerful way to help people who have experienced trauma.

Dr. Jeanne M. Slattery's approach to meaning-making works best with clients with a history of trauma. Attending to meaning — including spirituality — helps therapists recognize beliefs, values, and goals, which may have been damaged by trauma, and clients rediscover a sense of hope, purpose, and meaning.

Considering meaning helps therapists and clients access strengths and social support and to be patient during the uncomfortable work of rebuilding a sense of meaning and purpose.

Such an emphasis on meaning can take place within any therapeutic approach.

Jeanne M. Slattery, PhD, is professor of psychology at Clarion University. She is passionate about teaching and helping students learn to become empathic and respectful clinicians.

She is the author of Trauma, Meaning, and Spirituality: Translating Research Into Clinical Practice and Counseling Diverse Clients: Bringing Context Into Therapy.

She is a licensed psychologist with a small private practice and especially works with adults and children with a history of trauma, and mood and anxiety disorders. She lives in Clarion, Pennsylvania.

• Park, C. L., Currier, J. M, Harris, J. I., & Slattery, J. M. (2017). Trauma, meaning, and spirituality: Translating research into clinical practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Slattery, J. M., & Park, C. L. (in preparation). Empathic counseling: Meaning, context, ethics, and skill (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Slattery, J. M., & Park, C. L. (2015). Spirituality and making meaning: Implications for therapy with trauma survivors. In D. F. Walker, C. A. Courtois, & J. D. Aten (Eds.), Spiritually oriented psychotherapy for trauma (pp. 127–146). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

APA Videos

• Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
  Candice M. Monson
• Cognitive Processing Therapy
  Patricia A. Resick
• Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
  Steven N. Gold
• Intimate Partner Violence
  Casey T. Taft
• Narrative Processes in Emotion-Focused Therapy for Trauma
  Lynne Angus and Sandra C. Pavio
• Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy for Trauma
  Donald F. Walker
• Working With Developmental Trauma
  Julian D. Ford

APA Books

• APA Handbook of Trauma Psychology
  Steven N. Gold
• Integrative Couple and Family Therapies: Treatment Models for Complex Clinical Issues
  Edited by Patricia J. Pitta and Corinne C. Datchi
• Narrative Processes in Emotion-Focused Therapy for Trauma
  Sandra C. Pavio and Lynne E. Angus
• Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy for Trauma
  Donald F. Walker, Christine A. Courtois, and Jamie D. Aten
• Trauma Therapy in Context: The Science and Craft of Evidence-Based Practice
  Edited by Robert A. McMackin, Elana Newman, Jason M. Fogler, and Terence M. Keane
• Trauma, Meaning, and Spirituality: Translating Research Into Clinical Practice
  Crystal L. Park, Joseph M. Currier, J. Irene Harris, and Jeanne M. Slattery
• Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD: A Brief Treatment Approach for Mental Health Professionals
  Denise M. Sloan and Brian P. Marx