Constructive Narrative in Arresting the Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Research and clinical practice in social work have historically recognized a strengths perspective. More recently, the role of a constructivist perspective has been discussed in social work education and practice. Narrative construction for the stress disordered client reflects both perspectives. Social workers can listen for and, with clients, identify strengths, survivorship, and resilience as the stories of trauma and victimization are told. Attending to the language of strength and survivorship can actually yield realistic treatment goals. A model of collaborative conceptualization of the problem and target goals is presented with the intended focus of this paper being to encourage the telling and adaptive retelling of the story of trauma. The author shares examples of language and communication given by clients in the adaptive description of traumatic experiences which form the foundation of ongoing healing.