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 psychotherapeutic change, to an analogue study in which 43 students were asked to write for 20 minutes a day for 4 days ("Pennebaker paradigm") about a traumatic experience. Contrary to expectations based on previous research, participants who showed the greatest change in assimilation level and achieved the highest levels of assimilation during the study subsequently had more health-center visits than participants whose assimilation was less. Qualitative exploratory work suggested that there may be negative consequences of exposing traumatic experiences in the absence of supportive therapy to contain and fully integrate the experiences. A more measured approach to the benefits of brief exposition of traumatic experiences may be warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)