Post-traumatic growth may feel like a dream that's out of reach if you've been a victim of betrayal trauma and emotional and psychological abuse. But Simona Nicolais' research findings show us that post-traumatic growth is absolutely attainable for victims.

Read the full transcript below and listen to The BTR.ORG Podcast for more.
It's Post-Traumatic Growth - Not Current-Traumatic Growth
Victims are often conditioned to believe that they should be changing and growing despite the onslaught of pain and trauma that comes from sexual coercion, gaslighting, emotional abuse, and financial control. Abusers expect victims to walk on eggshells, perform their "roles" perfectly, and thrive in every aspect of life.

Of course, at BTR.ORG, we know that when you're facing active abuse, even surviving day-to-day life can feel unbearable.

Post-Traumatic Growth is possible when victims have courageously placed proximity between themselves and the harmful behavior.
3 Steps Toward Post-Traumatic Growth
If you're wondering how to begin your journey toward Post-Traumatic Growth, you might consider taking these initial steps:

* Identify the source of the trauma - what forms of abuse are you experiencing?
* Seek support as you begin to process the reality of abuse and plan how you will establish proximity between yourself and the harmful behaviors that are causing trauma.
* Implement action steps to remove yourself from harmful situations, people, and behaviors.

BTR.ORG Is Here For You
At BTR.ORG, we know how difficult it is to accept that you're experiencing abuse. We also know how hopeful it is to know that Post-Traumatic Growth is a real possibility after betrayal.

Consider attending a BTR.ORG Group Session today to begin processing your experiences.
Full Transcript:
Anne (00:00):
Welcome to BTR.ORG. This is Anne.

I am so excited to introduce to you Simona Nicolais. I recently met her. She is incredible, and she is a doctoral student at Auburn University. She's a licensed therapist and she is doing her doctoral studies on post-traumatic growth. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in her study as well as many women in our BTR community, so I wanted to have her on to talk about her study and talk about the things that she's doing currently. She works in private practice in Birmingham, Alabama, and she specializes in working with partners of porn addicts and sex addicts. So welcome, Simona.

Simona (03:51):
Well, thank you, Anne. I am so excited to be with you and thanks for having me on your podcast.
Studying Post-Traumatic Growth
Anne (03:58):
Yes, so we were talking when I was participating in your study. It was really interesting, and then we had a conversation after that was really interesting. So let's just talk about your study, first of all, and then some of the things that we discussed. Let's start with your study,

Simona (04:16):
By the way, I loved having you on my study as a participant. I realized that there's a gap in literature surrounding post-traumatic growth, which is really the growth that people experience after a whole lot of suffering and a whole lot of trauma. And I just wanted to study post-traumatic growth in partners of porn and sex addicts, which is a population that I work with. I got interested in this subject because over the years I would start seeing partners and the beginning was really rough, and we all know that just the first six months, people come in and they are so disoriented and just not knowing if there's anything good after this and if they will survive it, if they will ever make meaning of this, if they will find hope or life after,