Religious/spiritual beliefs offer a means of coping with trauma in the aftermath of war. In the process, some survivors show evidence of posttraumatic growth (PTG). This dissertation’s qualitative research utilized the narrative approaches of Life Story Interview and Artistic Inquiry to tell the stories of 11 war survivors whose lives are a testimony to the transformative interplay among posttraumatic stress (PTS), religious/spiritual beliefs, and PTG.

Participants from Asia and Africa shared their stories through personal narrative, assessments, and artwork. Six Protestant Christians were interviewed in Uganda, and 5 war refugees from Viet Nam (4 Catholic and 1 Cao Đài adherent) were interviewed in California. Results from the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995), PTSD Checklist (Weathers, Litz, Herman, Huska, & Keane, 1993), and Index of Core Religious Experience (Kass, Friedman, Leserman, Zuttermeister, & Benson, 1991) informed the direction of semistructured interviews. The 2 questions guiding this research were as follows: (1) How do adult survivors of war trauma portray the interrelationship between PTG and religious/spiritual beliefs in their own life stories? (2) How do adult survivors of war trauma describe and image the relationship between PTS and PTG in themselves?

The research yielded the following significant findings: (a) PTG is not just a Western phenomenon, but also an experience found in Asia and Africa; (b) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and PTG can and do often coexist in trauma survivors at the same time; (c) Not only do religious beliefs influence PTG, but PTG also has the capacity to alter religious beliefs; (d) It is vitally important to international trauma survivors that psychologists become familiar with the cultural and religious backgrounds of potential clients/study participants before attempting counseling/research; and (e) Therapeutic interviewing techniques can have healing effects on study participants, even when research methods do not include formal psychological interventions.