Assimilation of traumatic experiences and physical-health outcomes: Cautions for the Pennebaker paradigm

This study reports an application of the assimilation model, a theory of ps ychotherapeutic change, to an analogue study in which students were asked t o write for 20 minutes a day for 4 days about a traumatic experience. Contr ary to expectations based on previous research, participants who showed the greatest change in assimilation level and achieved the highest levels of a ssimilation during the study subsequently had more health-center visits tha n participants whose assimilation was less, Qualitative exploratory work su ggested that there may be negative consequences of exposing traumatic exper iences in the absence of supportive therapy to contain and fully integrate the experiences. A more measured approach to the benefits of brief expositi on of traumatic experiences may be warranted.