Digital Storytelling As a Trauma Narrative Intervention for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Background

This qualitative study presents the use of digital storytelling (DS) as a trauma narrative intervention for adult survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV, N =17) experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experiencing IPV can cause an individual to split off one or more aspects related to the abusive experience including one's thoughts, memories, perceptions, or feelings. This jumble of fragments are difficult to understand and associated with confounding emotions (e.g., terror) thus overwhelming individuals with experiences they cannot process and, consequently, inhibiting their ability to construct a coherent self-narrative. Failure to adequately integrate trauma-related information underlies psychological problems including PTSD.  Digital storytelling (DS) provides an avenue of expression for IPV survivors to discover their voices and integrate their experiences.  DS is a computer-based tool that assimilates a mixture of text, digital images, audio narration, and music, as a way of arranging temporal elements into a whole by connecting them and directing them toward a conclusion or ending.  This study aimed to understand the capacity of DS to accommodate the unique challenges related to survivors in telling their stories while analyzing its potential mental health benefits. 

Methods

Participants (N=17) ranged in age from 20 to 65 years old (M=36; SD=12.12), were mostly Caucasian (87%), and unemployed (65%).  Eight had experienced violence in the relationship for 10 or less years while 9 had experienced violence for 11 or more years.  Participants were recruited through counseling referrals at a rural victim services agency and had to meet the PTSD clinical cut-off score of ≥44 as assessed by the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version. 

 

Results

The digital storytelling process averaged six sessions.  In regard to pre- and post-DS changes, on average, there was a 26 point decrease in overall total PTSD symptoms.  There were significant clinical differences (5 or more points) in avoidance and emotional numbing (pre: M=26.44; post: M=16.5), followed by re-experiencing (pre:  M=19.41; post:  M=10.50) and hyper-arousal (pre:  M=18.85; post:  M=12).  Thematic analysis indicated that, in addition to incorporating the traumatic events into one’s ongoing life story, other major transformative aspects were positive identity development (e.g., “I feel like I got ME back.”), enhanced mastery (e.g., “Everything about me has changed.  It’s been huge.”), and a greater sense of relatedness (e.g., “I don’t live in fear of everybody.  My whole outlook has change.”). Participants were asked about the helpfulness of DS in processing their experiences (1/Not Helpful-5/Very Helpful).  Participants perceived all aspects of the DS process as helpful; the highest rated items:  selecting pictures (M=4.86), writing one’s script (M=4.67), organizing pictures (M=4.42), and recording/listening to one’s voice (M=4.5). 

Conclusions/Implications

DS as a narrative method allowed for processing trauma-related information in an innovative and multi-sensory manner that enhanced narrative integration.  Adults with such strategies then have the tools for constructing adaptive meanings of their exposure to IPV, both in its immediate aftermath and over time.  Participants’ positive changes in how they perceived themselves, their strengths and relationships with others, is likely to do more to sustain treatment changes than the reduction of post-trauma symptoms alone.