Jun 22, 2022Sharon Spano's Podcast

Posttraumatic Growth with Josh Goldberg

Most people who suffer from PTSD have never heard of posttraumatic growth, and our guest today insists that a diagnosis isn’t enough. People deserve the opportunity to liberate themselves and future generations from their traumas, in a safe, empathetic environment. Josh Goldberg is the co-founder and executive director of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth and has led Boulder Crest’s efforts to develop the nation’s first comprehensive, non-clinical curriculum for posttraumatic growth. He is dedicated to ensuring that service members, veterans, first responders, and their families have the opportunity to live lives of passion, purpose, and service.

Josh joins us today as part of our Conscious Community segment to talk about training individuals in the principles of posttraumatic growth, and how this leads to an increased quality of life and a decreased suicide rate among veterans and first responders. We discuss PTSD in-depth, from its varied manifestations to the reasons people fail to seek help for it. Josh fills us in on the problem with the narrative of our mental health system and shares Boulder Crest Foundation’s goal to normalize struggle and democratize the capacity to struggle well.

Tune in for this inspiring episode with someone who truly has turned his life around to make a difference, and find out how he facilitates posttraumatic growth without retraumatization, enabling people to transcend their suffering, rather than simply endure it. Trauma serves as the earthquake that shakes up your entire reality and, in this episode, you’ll discover the profound opportunity it can provide for you and your family to grow!

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

Josh Golberg’s journey to posttraumatic growth for veterans and first responders.
The two powerful messages he took from the book, Man’s Search for Meaning.
The problem with the narrative of our mental health system.
What Josh has learned from the people he works with.
What PTSD is and how it manifests.
The three categories first responders experience.
Reasons people don’t seek help for PTSD and mental health issues.
Boulder Crest Foundation’s goal to normalize struggle and democratize the capacity to struggle well.
How Josh opens up his posttraumatic growth sessions and encourages people to share.
How to avoid retraumatization.
Why Josh isn’t fond of the prolonged exposure technique.
The involvement of families in the posttraumatic growth process.
The phenomenon of post-secondary PTSD.
Grappling with your childhood traumas to ensure they aren’t passed forward.
A powerful exercise in the Warrior PATHH program.
The difference in perspective between coaches and therapists.
Three ways of making sense of the ills of life: indifference, philosophy, and religion.
The profound opportunity that trauma provides.
The link between leadership and empathy.