INTERVENTIONS FOR ENHANCING POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH FOLLOWING A PHYSICAL DISEASE

A chronic illness, including cancer and autoimmune diseases, can be considered a traumatic experience, impacting personal, family, social, and professional areas of an individual’s life. This chapter summarizes the evidence for posttraumatic growth (PTG) in people with chronic illnesses and explains how the PTG model is applied to living with such as disease. Individual and group psychotherapeutic interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in helping people who have experienced several traumatic events are discussed. Interventions that supported PTG as a primary or secondary outcome in patients living with a chronic illness are reviewed, including cognitive-behavioral therapy for stress management, peer support therapy, cognitive-existential therapy, and psycho-spiritual and mindfulness-based therapy. Finally, a summary of the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions in people with cancer and other chronic illnesses is presented.