The holistic healing arts retreat: An intensive, experiential intervention for survivors of interpersonal trauma.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the effectiveness of an intensive, experiential intervention, the Holistic Healing Arts Retreat, for improving posttraumatic symptoms (primary) and comorbid depression and perceived stress (secondary).

METHOD: The sample consisted of women exposed to childhood physical or sexual abuse, sexual assault, or domestic violence in a two-arm randomized control trial comparing retreat now (n = 49) versus retreat later (n = 60) conditions. We also examined the retreat's effectiveness for improving potential transdiagnostic mechanisms (self-compassion, experiential avoidance, nonreactivity, negative self-affect) common to emotional disorders. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 1, 4, and 7 months following the retreat.

RESULTS

Linear mixed-effects models, adjusted for age and level of trauma exposure, showed statistically significant improvements in posttraumatic symptoms (d = .65, .55, .70), depression (d = .42, .39, .41), and perceived stress (d = .47, .50, .57) at 1, 4, and 7 months, respectively, with the exception of posttraumatic symptoms at 4 months, which showed a trend (p ≤ .06). Linear mixed-effects models, adjusted for age, also showed statistically significant improvements in self-compassion (d = .78, .71, .62) and experiential avoidance (d = .34, .34, .51) at 1-, 4-, and 7-month time points, respectively; nonreactivity (affect regulation) at 1 and 7 months (d = .58 and .44, respectively) and nonjudging (negative self-affect) at 4 and 7 months (d = .63 and .71, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest this intense, experiential, holistic, retreat-based intervention is effective and efficient among trauma-exposed women for lasting change in trauma-related outcomes, as well as transdiagnostic mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).