Richard Tedeschi || The Science of Post-Traumatic Growth
The Psychology Podcast
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2021
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I talk to Richard Tedeschi about post-traumatic growth (PTG). We dive into how Richard became interested in PTG and the findings from his many years of research. As a clinical psychologist, Richard emphasizes the lived experiences of individuals⎯acknowledging that trauma and transformative change are very context-specific. We also touch on the topics of cultural differences, personality, and Boulder Institute’s post-traumatic growth program.
Bio
Dr. Richard Tedeschi is professor emeritus of psychology at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He’s a licensed psychologist specializing in bereavement and trauma, and has led support groups for bereaved parents for over 20 years. With his colleague Lawrence Calhoun, he published books on post-traumatic growth, an area of research that they have developed that examines personal transformations in the aftermath of traumatic life events. Their books include Trauma and Transformation, Posttraumatic Growth, Facilitating Posttraumatic Growth, Helping Bereaved Parents: A Clinician’s Guide, and the Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth.
Website: https://pages.charlotte.edu/richtedeschi/
Topics
00:00:54 Richard’s interest in post-traumatic growth
00:04:05 Definition of post-traumatic growth (PTG)
00:06:01 Domains of PTG
00:10:02 Perceived change VS actual change
00:16:27 PTG as positive personality changes
00:20:42 Boulder Crest Institute’s post-traumatic growth program
00:26:01 Trauma as a disruption in the psyche
00:29:16 Richard’s roots in humanistic therapy
00:31:08 The subjective experience and response to trauma
00:36:43 Cultural differences in posttraumatic growth
00:40:24 Can posttraumatic growth and PTSD co-exist?
00:38:42 Post-ecstatic growth
00:44:50Catastrophe theory
00:46:07 The pandemic as a potential catalyst for growth
00:48:28 How to facilitate post-traumatic growth
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Today we have Richard Dadesky on the podcast. Dr. Dadesky is a professor of psychology at |
| 0:18.9 | University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a licensed psychologist specializing |
| 0:23.0 | in bereavement and trauma, and has led support groups for bereaved parents for over 20 years. |
| 0:28.6 | With his colleague Lawrence Calhoun, he has published books on post-traumatic growth, |
| 0:32.4 | an area of research that they have developed that examines personal transformations in the |
| 0:36.2 | aftermath of traumatic life events. Their books include trauma and transformation, |
| 0:41.0 | post-traumatic growth, facilitating post-traumatic growth, helping bereaved parents |
| 0:45.0 | to clinician's guide, and the handbook of post-traumatic growth. |
| 0:49.6 | Richard, it's so great to chat with you today on the podcast. |
| 0:52.4 | Thank you. So I'm wondering how in the world did you get involved in |
| 0:58.5 | this topic? This was not, when you were probably working on your dissertation, |
| 1:03.0 | this was not a topic that was first and foremost in the trauma literature, right? |
| 1:08.4 | Well, I've been around for a long time, so I've been around before PTSD was even a diagnosis, |
| 1:16.3 | so very evident. Right, right. What was your dissertation on? |
| 1:20.9 | My dissertation was on, basically, trust in psychotherapy, so it was a therapy |
| 1:30.4 | analog study of how trust develops among between therapists and clients, based on |
| 1:36.5 | some of their personal characteristics and their similarities to one another, so that's what I was |
| 1:40.7 | looking at then. So I was really interested coming out of graduate school in the concept of trust. |
| 1:46.7 | Gotcha. Where did things transition into this line of research that you currently work on? |
| 1:53.3 | What's the origin story of it? Yeah, I guess it came out of some |
| 2:01.9 | questions I had in my own mind about my career and what I really wanted to do. |
| 2:07.1 | By the time I got tenure at the university, I was really wondering |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.