Development of a Coaching-Based Framework
for Calling Re-establishment Among Middle-Aged Women
After Relational Trauma:
A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study
Lee, Yoon-Hee
Coaching Psychology, Kwangshin University
(Supervised by Professor : Kim, Yong...
Development of a Coaching-Based Framework
for Calling Re-establishment Among Middle-Aged Women
After Relational Trauma:
A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study
Lee, Yoon-Hee
Coaching Psychology, Kwangshin University
(Supervised by Professor : Kim, Yong-ku)
(abstract)
The purpose of this study was to elucidate, from a hermeneutic
phenomenological perspective, how middle-aged women who
experienced posttraumatic growth following relational trauma
reconstruct their identities within a coaching context and re-establish
meaning in life and a sense of calling. Building on the experiential
structures derived from the analysis, the study further aimed to
propose a coaching-based framework informed by the principles of
Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). The research questions were as follows:
(1) What is the essence of psychological and identity change that
emerges in the lived experiences of middle-aged women after
relational trauma? (2) In the course of change, how is the sense of
calling reconstructed in terms of its meaning content and modalities?
(3) How do identity change and calling re-establishment manifest as
temporal and relational structures? (4) Based on these experiential
structures, how can a TIC-informed coaching-based framework be - 183
conceptualized?
Participants were four women in their 40s and 50s who had
experienced relational trauma and reported posttraumatic growth; they
were recruited through purposive sampling. Each participant
completed two in-depth interviews (approximately 90 minutes per
session). Data were analyzed in accordance with van Manen’s
hermeneutic phenomenological procedures, including iterative reading,
identification of meaning units, thematic clustering, integrative
interpretation through the lens of the four existentials (corporeality,
spatiality, temporality, and relationality), phenomenological writing, and
validity checks.
The findings are summarized as follows. First, the transformation
following relational trauma in middle-aged women was not merely a
reduction of symptoms; rather, it constituted a process in which
identity
was re-formed through self-reflection and meaning
reconstruction, and through the reorganization of relational
experiences, beginning from an initial experience of existential
disruption. Second, calling was reconstructed not as an issue of
selecting a particular occupation but as a “mode of being” that
re-orients one’s life toward others and the world by integrating
wounded experiences; supportive relationships, resonant encounters,
and the repeated enactment of small actions were identified as
conditions that strengthened this process. Third, identity change and
calling re-establishment unfolded within a temporal structure in which
the reinterpretation of past traumatic experiences, the expansion of
present self-understanding, and the formation of a future-oriented life
narrative were intertwined in a reciprocal cycle, as well as within a
relational structure characterized by movement from disconnection
toward support and mutuality. Fourth, synthesizing these results, the - 184
study proposed a coaching-based framework integrating core TIC
principles with coaching psychology. This framework delineates an
interlinked pathway of change involving the establishment of a safe
relational field, the verbalization of emotions and bodily sensations,
the re-narration of time (past–present–future), relational reconnection
through support and resonance, and the gradual strengthening of
calling enactment.
This study has academic significance in that it presents change
following relational trauma as an integrated structure of “identity
reconstruction–re-narration of time–relational reconnection–calling
re-establishment,” thereby extending posttraumatic growth research
from outcome-centered quantitative approaches to an experience- and
process-centered
hermeneutic
inquiry.
In
addition,
by
reconceptualizing calling as a structure that organizes meaning in life
and existential orientation, and by proposing a TIC-informed
coaching-based framework, the study provides directions for
interventions applicable to counseling, coaching, and educational
practice to support recovery and calling re-establishment among
middle-aged women who have experienced relational trauma. Although
caution is warranted regarding generalization due to the small sample
size and participant characteristics, this study contributes to the
expansion of theoretical foundations for subsequent research and
practice by clarifying the meaning structures of the change process
through the lived experiences of relational trauma.
Keywords: coaching framework, relational trauma, posttraumatic
growth, calling re-establishment, middle-aged women,
hermeneutic phenomenology