Posttraumatic Growth (PTG), a term coined by Drs. Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun (2004), brings forth a balanced approach to dealing and productively engaging with life in the aftermath of adversity and trauma. By identifying the Five Domains of PTG, Tedeschi and Calhoun help survivors recognize their potential to move beyond survival and grow post trauma.

Metahabilitation© (Metahab) is a philosophy and system that acknowledges and embraces this capacity, uncovering and utilizing each person’s ability to survive and grow through adversity. The Metahab Stages of Recovery and unique clinical pathway helps survivors build resilience and experience PTG, not in spite of what they endured but as a direct result of their challenges and trauma, recognizing available resources and personal strengths.

Originator of Metahab

The idea of utilizing adversity and trauma to become stronger is not an idea whose time has come but more, an idea whose time has come back.

Dr. Joyce Mikal-Flynn, a Professor in the School of Nursing, focuses on trauma-informed care, emphasizing how to build resilience and posttraumatic growth (PTG). She conceived the word, Metahabilitation, to describe a more optimistic and productive outcome in the aftermath of trauma.

Her initial research brought forth a strengths-based clinical pathway guiding individuals toward PTG. Ongoing research concentrated on how traumatic experiences build resilience and bring forth PTG in secondary and vicarious trauma survivors and communities. She lectures extensively on the subject and created the course, Traumatology. An Introduction to Posttraumatic Growth, and continues to apply Metahabilitation Programs and Workshops in various rehabilitation and recovery settings.