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Despite the long-term aftereffects of childhood trauma, very few older trauma survivors disclose their traumatic experiences or seek help for their trauma-related problems. If they do disclose or seek help, they tend to talk to family or friends or seek help for only physical problems associated with their trauma. In light of this, the present qualitative study sought to understand what particular factors affected older trauma survivors’ willingness to disclose their trauma or seek-help for their trauma-related problems. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 women and 8 men ranging in age from 61 to 83 years old (M age = 70). These participants experienced a range of childhood traumas, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, warfare and internment in a concentration camp during World War II. The grounded theory analysis revealed that negative disclosure experiences (i.e., when the participants’ trauma and its effects were not acknowledged or believed) served to exacerbate feelings of shame and fear that persisted throughout the participants’ lives. That is, participants who felt that they could acknowledge their past (either because it was okay to talk about it or because their disclosure was believed) were less likely to need therapy and faring well psychologically in their later years. However, for participants who had their disclosures suppressed, rebuked or disbelieved, the feelings associated with those reactions became deeply ingrained in their understanding of their trauma as well as their “perceived” role in their traumatic experiences (i.e., feeling somehow responsible for the traumatic experience or as “damaged goods”). As a consequence, they continued to deal with the psychological and physical effects of their earlier trauma well into their later years. The discourse analysis revealed a number of genderand age-related discourses in participants’ discussions during the interviews, discourses that had important implications for how participants understood their traumatic experiences and the likelihood that they would disclose these experiences to others. Implications for research and practice are discussed, particularly with regard to working with older trauma survivors and supporting their disclosure and help-seeking.

(Re)negotiating realities : gender- and age-related factors associated wtih older trauma survivors' disclosure and help-seeking