From painstaking work to a new way of meeting the world-Trauma clients' experiences with skill training in a stabilization group approach.

OBJECTIVE: The study explored how former trauma clients experienced the inclusion of skill training in their treatment, their ways of relating to and using these skills, and how this changed over time.

METHOD: Semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 clients within three months of their completion of treatment, and again 11-13 months later.

RESULTS: Analysis of the material resulted in three main themes: (1) Being ready to find new ways to deal with trauma-related problems as a motivational starting point at intake, (2) Finding new agency through skills and understanding, and (3) One year on-Meeting the everyday world in a new way. An overreaching theme was the significant effort clients put into their treatments.

CONCLUSIONS: The results show how skills over time became integrated and were linked to profound changes, including changes in emotional processing and an increased sense of agency. An experiential interrelationship between understanding and action was found, that supports the practice of coupling skill training with psychoeducation in trauma-specific treatment.