The SHARE Model of Trauma Recovery: Addressing Silence, Honor, Attachment, Relational Trauma, and Embodied Memory in Collectivist Cultures

Abstract

Background

Global trauma recovery frameworks have predominantly emerged from Western cultural paradigms, emphasizing individualism, open expression, and cognitive reframing. These approaches often fail to account for the sociocultural realities of collectivist, honor-based societies, where silence, relational boundaries, and communal identity fundamentally shape the trauma experience.

Objective

This paper introduces the SHARE Model of Trauma Recovery, a culturally grounded conceptual framework that responds to this gap by centering five core constructs: Silence, Honor, Attachment, Relational Trauma, and Embodied Memory.

Method

Developed through critical synthesis of neurobiological theories (e.g., Polyvagal Theory), feminist psychology, and cross-cultural trauma literature, the SHARE model addresses how cultural scripts, familial loyalty, and suppressed emotion inhibit traditional recovery pathways.

Results

Each element of the model reflects a culturally embedded barrier and potential access point for healing within non-Western contexts, particularly among women and survivors of violence in patriarchal, collectivist societies. The SHARE model redefines trauma recovery as a relational, embodied, and culturally mediated process, extending beyond Western diagnostic categories to include silence as survival, honor as constraint, and attachment as both wounding and healing.

Conclusions

Clinical implications, therapeutic applications, and avenues for future empirical testing are discussed. This model offers a critical step toward equitable, culturally responsive trauma care and sets a foundation for transforming global trauma theory and practice.