A Multilevel Spiral Model of Post-Traumatic Growth: Integrating Individual, Relational, and Collective Pathways of Transformation

Abstract Trauma research has most often been studied through the harm it inflicts on individuals and has largely centered on individual events and on the harm they can cause. Yet much trauma is complex, continuous, collective, and intergenerational — including systemic and structural forms such as racism, sexism, discrimination, and ecological breakdown for which there is often no clear ’pre-’ or ‘post’ trauma state. Simultaneously, the rupture that trauma causes can also become a site of profound transformation, a phenomenon often referred to as ’post-traumatic growth’ (PTG). Just as trauma can extend beyond the individual, so too may growth. Recent work has begun to define and measure Collective PTG (CPTG) as positive change in the collective self following shared adversity (O. T. Muldoon et al., 2023, 2026), while earlier research has defined CPTG as benefits perceived by community and society, as a response to collective traumatic experiences (Páez & Vázquez, 2012). While still a limited explored phenomenon, emerging research has caused recent broader theory to now recognize that growth may occur at relational, group, community, organizational, and societal levels (Tedeschi et al., 2026). Building on these developments, this article moves from establishing that collective PTG exists toward exploring how it may be facilitated or constrained. It proposes a broader multilevel framework, expressed as a spiral model, that conceptualizes individual and collective PTG not as separate or competing but as differentiated yet dynamically linked dimensions of the same transformation. Grounded in interpersonal neurobiology and integrating interdisciplinary research and theory from within the fields of psychology, neuroscience, sociology, anthropology, and ecological systems thinking, the framework proposes six interrelated pathways through which post-traumatic growth may be supported or constrained: Awareness; Acceptance; Emotional Disclosure, Social Connection, and Community; Expanded Self and Interconnectedness; Action, Agency, and Collective Efficacy; and Continuous Exploration and Integration. These are framed not as fixed stages but as recursive, bidirectional and mutually influencing processes - each may move toward growth or toward a constraining counterpart (such as dissociation, resentment, exclusion, or dehumanization), and each is further shaped by collective conditions such as leadership, narratives, justice, institutional response , culture and access to (psycho)education. Together they emphasize the interdependency of individual, relational, cultural, systemic and planetary trauma and healing. Rather than prescribing happiness, resilience, or growth or minimizing suffering, the framework aims to propose conditions under which individual and collective PTG may become more or less likely across levels, and to generate hypotheses for future empirical work. This is a preprint of a manuscript submitted for peer review.