An Introduction to Trauma in the Pews 2.0
It is time to answer the question survivors ask me after reading Trauma in the Pews: If the problem isn't spiritual, what do I do next?"
Is it possible that this series of newsletters will one day be a book? It is possible, but that process is slow and it seems most important to provide a follow-up to Trauma in the Pews sooner, rather than later. My reasons for this are explained in this Introduction.
Why Trauma in the Pews 2.0? The answer to this question is that Trauma in the Pews was the result of publishing decisions—good ones—but did not answer the predominant questions that readers are now asking me. My original intent was to write a book addressed to survivors of childhood trauma that would explain how the struggles they believed were spiritual problems were instead caused by the impact of trauma. The decision to instead address the book to ministry leaders was agreed to because It did no good to help survivors heal if faith communities did not know how to support them.
We believed that the survivors would read Trauma in the Pews over the shoulders of ministry leaders. What actually happened is that the survivors began reading first and then handing the book to ministry leaders—sometimes in person and sometimes through social media. What they said to me was, “I felt seen and understood.” The response was overwhelming in the best kind of way.
Then the survivors asked, “If the problem isn’t spiritual, what do I do now?” It was frustrating to realize that the answer to this question had been almost entirely removed from the book! For good reasons, but that is why began working on Trauma in the Pews 2.0: Healing as a Spiritual Practice (working title).
If I found a healing tree in my backyard, and it grew some sort of fruit that was a healing balm for people to repair what was damaged, I'm not going to just harvest all of those fruits and say, 'You cant have this.' If I have a cure for people, I'm going to share it. - Tarana Burke
As I began writing, I struggled to find a word picture that adequately described what healing as a spiritual practice would look like. One day, as a guest on a podcast, I answered this question. The survivor lives in a spiritual space between “I can’t” —which is the impact of trauma that I discuss in Trauma in the Pews, and “I should” which is what the church leaders taught them. The solution exists in the space between these two mindsets.
I call the middle space Post-Traumatic Spiritual Growth. It is where the survivor, through healing, develops spiritual practices that fit who they are and acknowledges the impact of their trauma with self-compassion. Some traditional spiritual practices can be accessed, others can be adapted, while still others can be created to fulfill the same purpose. Helping survivors on this healing path that results in spiritual growth is the intent of this book.
Healing is a spiritual practice. You do not need to separate faith and the healing of trauma into spiritual and not spiritual categories. Professional therapeutic healing and spiritual practices can walk hand in hand. So much of what I accomplished in therapy fulfilled the intent of traditional spiritual practices. Sadly, I did not recognize this and therefore discounted the work I did to heal as not having any spiritual value.
Trauma in the Pews 2.0 is different because of the conversations I had with readers. I soon realized how often Religious Trauma (RT) was part of their stories. For some, this resulted from the lack of trauma-informed, sensitive, or responsive care in the churches as discussed in Trauma in the Pews. For others, it was due to the more systemic problems of RT. If this is part of your faith story, it must also be part of your healing. Religious Trauma resources are available here. While this topic is not the focus of this book, it must not be ignored.
Finally, during these conversations, I also realized how little trauma-informed information is available to those within most faith communities. This was particularly true about information concerning regulating the nervous system, especially if trauma was involved. The physical impact of trauma (dysregulation), when mistaken for a spiritual problem, will stand in the way of healing. Thus, it will be a prominent theme of Trauma in the Pews 2.0. Healing from the impact of trauma involves physical healing. Trauma-informed spiritual practices can help you do this. Healing is possible and it is a spiritual practice.
One of the most challenging things I had to learn was that healing must be intentional. There is no one golden day that comes and saves you from all your misery. Healing is a practice. You have to decide that it’s what you want to do and actively do it. You have to make a habit out of it. Once I learned that, I only looked back to see how far I came.
-noorskitchen/The Minds Journal