The study contains results of the first part of an empirical research, having been executed with samples of educational advisers and clients of psychiatric consulting. They filled out an anonymous questionnaire concerning the most sad and painful events in their lives, their short-term and long-term effects, the way they managed to cope with them, available sources of social support and possible influence of these events on the meaning of their lives. Moreover, the respondents evaluated perceived long-term effect of the events on the scale from 1 (univocaly negative to 9) univocally positive. The results of the investigation supported the presumption that transcendence of the worst life events is not so exceptional phenomenon as previously claimed in literature.

        Key words: negative life event, coping with, transcendence.