On my way back from a conference presentation in Santa Fe I met a therapist in the airport shuttle taking us to the airport. As we launched into a lengthy discussion I learned that she was there doing a workshop training other therapists to work with individuals who had experienced trauma and who were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

I also learned that she herself had been trained by a well known and internationally renowned psychologist who I knew and had heard the year before speaking at a conference in Energy Psychology in Toronto, Canada.

As we talked I learned that she had a very interesting yet dissonant philosophy on the role of trauma in one's life experience. As she put it she considered "trauma to be a gift to be learned from".

Well on hearing this I immediately recoiled and let her know that I absolutely did not resonate with her statement of belief. I noted that for me "trauma was trauma" pure and simple and that if there was less of it here humanity would be much better off for it.

She clearly was taken aback and didn't know what else to say so the conversation ended abruptly.

I have run into such beliefs about the role of trauma before, especially among therapists whose life and work is about healing individuals so they may "learn" and "grow