🌱 From Trauma to Transformation: Understanding Post-Traumatic Growth vs. PTSD
By: Dr. Jenn Merthe-Grayson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
The Hidden Fork in the Road After Trauma
After a life-altering event - whether a car accident, loss, illness, or betrayal - the human mind can take very different paths. One road leads toward Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), marked by fear, hypervigilance, and avoidance. The other, less discussed, leads toward Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) - a positive psychological transformation that can emerge in the wake of suffering.
Understanding both experiences helps normalize distress while empowering survivors to recognize their potential for healing and growth.
PTSD: When the Nervous System Gets Stuck
PTSD is not a sign of weakness - it’s a reflection of a nervous system overwhelmed by threat.
Common features include:
Intrusive memories or flashbacks
Avoidance of reminders of the trauma
Emotional numbness or detachment
Hyperarousal (startle response, insomnia, irritability)
From a neurological standpoint, the amygdala (alarm system) stays on high alert, while the prefrontal cortex (the rational, meaning-making center) struggles to regain control. The body remains ready for danger, even when safety returns.
Post-Traumatic Growth: When Healing Creates Strength
Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) doesn’t mean the trauma was good - it means that growth became possible because of what was endured. Psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, who coined the term in the 1990s, describe PTG as positive psychological change following adversity.
Domains of PTG include:
New appreciation for life
Deeper relationships and empathy
Increased personal strength
Spiritual or existential development
A shift in priorities or life goals
Neuroscientifically, PTG reflects the brain’s remarkable neuroplasticity - the ability to rewire pathways of meaning, self-concept, and connection after trauma.
PTSD and PTG Can Co-Exist
Contrary to popular belief, growth and distress are not opposites. Many survivors experience both PTSD symptoms and post-traumatic growth simultaneously. Healing isn’t linear; it’s layered.
The presence of intrusive memories doesn’t mean you’re “failing to grow.” In fact, struggling to make meaning is often what fuels growth.
How Growth Happens: Key Psychological Mechanisms
Research suggests several key processes promote PTG:
Cognitive Processing: Making sense of the event through reflection, therapy, or journaling.
Emotional Regulation: Learning to soothe the nervous system so deeper meaning-making can occur.
Social Support: Sharing one’s story within safe, empathic relationships.
Mindfulness and Acceptance: Re-anchoring the mind in the present moment, reducing avoidance.
These processes slowly move individuals from “Why me?” toward “What now?”
🧠 Try This: The Growth Mapping Exercise
This reflective tool helps clients and readers move from trauma narrative toward growth narrative.
Step 1: The Impact Zone
Write: “What changed after my experience? What feels broken or uncertain?”
(Acknowledge loss, fear, anger - this grounds authenticity.)
Step 2: The Insight Zone
Ask: “What truths about myself or life have I seen more clearly since then?”
Step 3: The Integration Zone
Reflect: “What strengths or values have surfaced through this pain? How might I live differently now?”
Encourage self-compassion through the process. Growth takes time - this exercise isn’t about silver-lining trauma, but about noticing the new capacities that can quietly emerge.
Therapeutic Pathways to Post-Traumatic Growth
Evidence-based interventions that support this transformation include:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Reduces traumatic intensity and allows meaning-making.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Helps reframe distorted beliefs about the trauma.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Builds psychological flexibility through mindfulness and values-based action.
Narrative Therapy: Reclaims agency by reconstructing the trauma story into a story of resilience.
The Takeaway
Trauma changes us - that’s unavoidable. The question becomes how it changes us.
While PTSD focuses on survival, Post-Traumatic Growth focuses on evolution. Both are valid. Both deserve compassion. And both remind us of the human brain’s incredible capacity to adapt, heal, and find purpose again.
🧠 Preparing for Things to Go Wrong: The Psychology of Adapting When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned
By: Dr. Jenn Merthe-Grayson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Most of us love the comfort of structure - a plan, a schedule, a sense that if we do things right, life will follow suit. But life rarely stays inside the lines. Flights get canceled. Projects fall apart. Kids get sick. Partners change their minds. And suddenly, the neat order we built our day around turns to chaos.
It’s human to want control - our brains are literally wired to crave it. But the truth is, the people who thrive aren’t the ones who plan most perfectly. They’re the ones who expect the unexpected, and adapt with intention when things go sideways.
In psychology, we call that resilience and psychological flexibility - the ability to recover, reorient, and realign with your values even when life doesn’t cooperate.
🌪️ Why We Fall Apart When Plans Do
We tend to assume stress comes from events themselves - the argument, the failure, the lost opportunity. But often, the real pain comes from the gap between what we expected and what actually happened.
That gap - the space between the ideal and the real - is where disappointment, anger, and self-criticism thrive.
Neuroscience helps explain this: the brain’s prediction systems constantly try to forecast what will happen next so we can stay safe. When reality contradicts that forecast, the brain flags it as a “threat.” That’s why even small disruptions (traffic, a broken coffee maker, a missed call) can trigger outsized reactions.
It’s not just inconvenience. It’s an unconscious alarm: “This isn’t how it was supposed to go!”
🌿 Adaptation as Emotional Intelligence in Motion
Adaptation isn’t resignation - it’s self-leadership under pressure.
Emotionally flexible people don’t ignore frustration or pretend to be unfazed. Instead, they acknowledge what’s happening and choose their next move intentionally. They zoom out and ask, “Given this new reality, what matters most right now?”
That mindset is the foundation of psychological flexibility - a central principle in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It’s what allows a parent to take a deep breath when plans unravel, a couple to stay connected through change, or an athlete to regain focus after a mistake on the ice.
When we practice adapting, we’re really practicing staying connected to ourselves - our values, our goals, and our capacity to grow even through discomfort.
🧩 Five Ways to Strengthen Your Adaptability
1. Expect Imperfection - and Build Margin for It
When we accept that something will go wrong, we shift from reactive panic to proactive readiness.
Build buffers into your life - extra time, emotional space, and realistic expectations. A morning that allows 10 extra minutes for chaos is a small act of self-compassion.
2. Separate Outcome from Identity
Plans fail. You don’t.
It’s easy to conflate the two - to believe that a project’s collapse or a child’s meltdown reflects your inadequacy. But outcome and identity are different data points. The former informs; the latter defines. Don’t let temporary results dictate permanent self-worth.
3. Practice Micro-Adaptations
Adaptability is a muscle built through daily reps.
When your day shifts - your meeting gets rescheduled, your partner forgets something - notice your instinctive reaction. Can you pause? Reframe? Find a small way to adjust your expectations? Those micro-adjustments build emotional range.
4. Anchor to Your “Why”
When the surface feels chaotic, go deeper.
Your “why” - your values, mission, or intention - is what grounds you when external order falls apart.
Ask yourself: What am I actually trying to create here? Calm? Connection? Progress?
When you remember that purpose, you can find new paths toward it, even if Plan A is gone.
5. Reflect, Don’t Ruminate
After something goes wrong, resist the pull to endlessly replay it.
Instead, try a quick reflection framework:
What actually happened?
What did I feel in the moment?
What can I learn for next time?
Reflection integrates the experience into growth; rumination just reinforces pain.
💬 What Adaptation Looks Like in Real Life
A client once told me, “I used to think being prepared meant preventing failure. Now I think it means being ready to respond when it happens.”
That’s the shift - from control to confidence.
Think about how you handle something as simple as a detour on your commute. Do you panic, or take a breath and find another way? The same principle applies in relationships, work, and parenting. The more you rehearse flexibility in small things, the more capable you become in big ones.
Even elite athletes train for this. A hockey goalie, for example, practices “reset drills” after every goal scored against them. The goal isn’t perfection - it’s the ability to recover fast, refocus, and re-engage.
That’s adaptability in motion.
🧘♀️ Try This Reflective Exercise
Think back to a time recently when something didn’t go as planned.
What expectation did you have going in?
How did your body and emotions react when things changed?
What did you want to do versus what you actually did?
What part of your response felt aligned with your values - and what part didn’t?
What could you practice next time to feel steadier in the storm?
Writing this out helps your brain integrate new learning. Over time, these reflections become an inner map - one that teaches you how to stay calm, centered, and adaptive no matter what’s unfolding.
🌤️ Final Thought: Control Less, Adapt More
Preparing for things to go wrong doesn’t make you cynical - it makes you grounded.
You’re not inviting disaster; you’re strengthening your ability to navigate life as it really is.
True resilience isn’t about everything going right. It’s about knowing that, even when it doesn’t, you will still be okay.
✨ Dr. Jenn Merthe-Grayson is a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of the Merthe-Grayson Center for Psychology & Wellness in Avon, Ohio. She helps individuals, couples, and athletes build emotional resilience, communication, and psychological flexibility through evidence-based care. Now accepting most major insurances including Aetna, Anthem, Medical Mutual, Cigna, and more.
“When Love Feels Like Obligation: Navigating Narcissistic Family Dynamics”
By: Dr. Jenn Merthe-Grayson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
(Why walking away-or even just setting limits-feels so complicated)
Family is supposed to be where we feel safe, supported, and seen.
But for some, family is the place where love is conditional, conversations feel like landmines, and guilt has become the glue that holds things together.
If you grew up with-or are still entangled with-a narcissistic parent or family member, you know the confusion:
“Am I ungrateful, or am I just tired of being controlled?”
That question alone reveals the core wound of narcissistic family systems: the belief that your worth is based on how well you meet someone else’s needs.
The Narcissistic Family Blueprint
Narcissistic family systems often revolve around one person’s emotional world.
They set the tone, rewrite the story, and decide what “love” looks like.
Common dynamics include:
Emotional inversion: You manage their feelings instead of your own.
Conditional approval: Affection or attention is earned, not freely given.
Triangulation: One family member is pulled into conflict to maintain control.
Gaslighting: Reality gets rewritten to protect the narcissist’s ego.
In these families, love isn’t mutual-it’s transactional. You learn early that peace depends on your compliance.
Why You Feel Guilty for Wanting Distance
Even after years of chaos or emotional manipulation, many people struggle to step back.
Why? Because your nervous system equates pleasing with survival.
As a child, maintaining harmony might have been your only way to stay safe or connected.
So as an adult, boundary-setting can feel like abandonment.
That anxiety isn’t irrational-it’s learned protection.
Healing begins when you realize:
Setting boundaries with a narcissistic family member isn’t betrayal-it’s repair.
Signs You’re Breaking the Cycle
You might be healing from narcissistic family dynamics if you’ve started to:
Feel anxious after contact, not before.
Second-guess whether your feelings are “valid.”
Notice you can’t relax when you’re around certain relatives.
Experience guilt when you prioritize your own needs.
These are not signs of selfishness-they’re the nervous system recalibrating after years of emotional unpredictability.
Try This: The “Reality Permission Slip”
Next time guilt or anxiety hits after an interaction, pause and write:
“I am allowed to protect my peace, even if others don’t understand it.”
“I don’t need to explain why I need space.”
“Their reaction does not define my right to rest.”
This simple grounding exercise helps retrain the brain to associate boundaries with safety, not shame.
Healing Isn’t About Confrontation - It’s About Clarity
You don’t need to win an argument or make them “see it.” Narcissistic dynamics thrive on confusion and emotional enmeshment.
The real freedom comes from clarity: knowing what’s yours to carry and what’s not.
Therapy can help you untangle guilt, rebuild self-trust, and create emotional space that finally feels like peace-not punishment.
✨ If you’re ready to stop feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions, healing is possible.
Dr. Jenn Merthe-Grayson is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Ohio, helping individuals and couples recover from narcissistic relationships, rebuild self-trust, and establish healthy emotional boundaries.
She accepts Aetna, Medical Mutual, Anthem, Cigna, and other major insurances.
📍 Visit drjennmerthegrayson.com to learn more or schedule a session.