Breaking the Silence: Using Therapeutic Assessment to Give Voice to Shame and Trauma. A Single-Case Repeated-Measures Design.
Donna Kelley, Julie Cradock O'Leary, Filippo Aschieri et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
Case in brief
Mei, a woman with severe PTSD, complex PTSD, and shame, underwent Therapeutic Assessment (TA). The report examined her daily self-reports before and for 25 days after the assessment, alongside pre-, mid-, and post-assessment symptom measures. Overall, her symptoms improved. However, ratings worsened around specific assessment procedures, including the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System and the Thurston Cradock Test of Shame. Sharp improvements followed when the assessor helped Mei process trauma re-elicited during assessment and develop self-compassion.
What made this case unusual
Symptom deterioration was linked to particular assessment procedures that re-elicited trauma, followed by sharp improvement after the material was processed with the assessor.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
In this case, trauma-focused assessment procedures coincided with temporary symptom worsening; tracking responses and processing re-elicited trauma were part of the subsequent improvement.