Phases of Disaster Response
This image is a visual guide to aid in congregation and community conversations about collective trauma response.
Generally, the four phases listed on the charts tend to take 24-60 months for a community to process through.
* This guide is an educational aid and is not prescriptive. Every trauma and healing process is unique, even when commonalities exist.
Generally, the four phases listed on the charts tend to take 24-60 months for a community to process through.
* This guide is an educational aid and is not prescriptive. Every trauma and healing process is unique, even when commonalities exist.
You can purchase the Phases of Collective Trauma Response Training Module
and Resource Guides for rebuilding ministry on the ICTG Training Page.
The Evolution of the Healing Trajectory Visual Aid
The four visual aids below trace the evolution of emotional trajectories in response to disasters. Originally, the first three traced responses to natural storms. The fourth focuses on responses to human-caused disasters. Throughout the evolution you will note changes in senses of impact of events, perceived heights of newfound senses of normal, and labels used.
The first chart is used by national agencies, like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to depict phases of disaster response. As they note on their website, the following image describes phases that were first observed or described among natural disaster recovery practices. They are general principles and illustrate a scope of response to situations where no precise, universal timeline exists because responses vary by each disaster.
The second chart has been used by many agencies, again from observations of response to natural storms, to describe emotional impacts of disaster for the purposes of planning long-term reconstruction.
The third chart appears on many government agency sites and depicts general emotional responses and phases of restoration after disaster.
The fourth chart is a visual aid created by authors D. Holyan, J. Kirk, L. Kraus, R. Turner, K. Wiebe, and B. Wismer (2011), adapted from one of the original graphs intended to trace response to natural storms. It depicts a general emotional trajectory for a congregation following a human-caused disaster, which is distinctive from the emotional response to natural destruction, as well as four phases of response that Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA/PCUSA) National Response teams use for emotional and spiritual care for clergy and congregations in crisis.
Many clergy and lay leaders that PDA has served have found this aid useful for identifying relational patterns and group dynamics in the months and years following an internal or community tragedy. It is important to recognize that the healing of each congregation is a unique experience, and that this visual aid is simply a tool to see general patterns. It is not prescriptive, but simply a guide. In the authors' experience, congregations generally take eighteen months to two years to travel the course of the trajectory.
Many clergy and lay leaders that PDA has served have found this aid useful for identifying relational patterns and group dynamics in the months and years following an internal or community tragedy. It is important to recognize that the healing of each congregation is a unique experience, and that this visual aid is simply a tool to see general patterns. It is not prescriptive, but simply a guide. In the authors' experience, congregations generally take eighteen months to two years to travel the course of the trajectory.
