trauma and healing: faith communities respond

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Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond Philip G. Monroe, PsyD Global Trauma Recovery Institute Biblical Seminary [email protected]

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Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond. Philip G. Monroe, PsyD Global Trauma Recovery Institute Biblical Seminary [email protected]. Objectives. Review trauma’s impact on faith Recognize and value faith community trauma recovery responses - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Philip G. Monroe, PsyD

Global Trauma Recovery Institute

Biblical Seminary

[email protected]

Page 2: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Objectives

• Review trauma’s impact on faith• Recognize and value faith community

trauma recovery responses• Recommend next steps for improved

faith/mental health cooperation

Page 3: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

1. REVIEW TRAUMA IMPACT ON FAITH EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION

Objectives:

Negative impact?

Positive impact?

Page 4: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Trauma Disrupts Faith/Identity

• Loss of meaning/connection• Existential angst• Spiritual struggles• Moral injury• Disconnection: faith and community• Special issue: Shame

Page 5: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

PTSD and Meaning Loss

• Exposure• Intrusive symptoms• Avoidance responses• Hypervigilance• Negative mood/cognitions

Page 6: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Complex Trauma and Meaning

Prolonged interpersonal trauma?–Loss of Meaning and Purpose

• No longer believe life has purpose• Question religious beliefs

Page 7: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Existential Angst

I was ready to tell the story of my life,

but the ripple of tears, and the agony of my

heart, wouldn’t let me

Rumi (13th C. Sufi Poet)

Page 8: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Spiritual Struggles

Two categories– Discontent– Reappraisal

Relationship with trauma symptoms?

Jennifer Wortmann- University of CT

Page 9: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Moral Injury

War-related moral injuries– Weakened faith and increased guilt predict

greater usage of VA services

Fontana and Rosenbeck, VA National Center, 2004

Page 10: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Civilian Moral Injury?

Trauma WITHIN faith communities

“I feel like a spiritual orphan, betrayed by what I loved, and I feel lost and alone”

Kusner & Pargament, Trauma Therapy in Context, 2012

Page 11: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Disconnected!

Now here I am Without myself

Bitter How can I go back

To whence I sprang?Mak Dizdar

Page 12: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Result: Shame

Common Refrains– I can’t forgive myself; I can’t forgive them– I shouldn’t fear…I should trust

Veterans who cannot forgive self are more symptomaticJoseph Currier, Fuller Seminary

Page 13: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Negative Impact on Spirituality?

Loss of meaning

Spiritual struggles

Moral injury

Disconnection: faith and community

And one more…

Page 14: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Vicarious Trauma

Evil often undermines and challenge beliefs– Listening to stories will change you!

…or become epitome of evil A E. Wiesel

The emotional residue in your life

Page 15: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Can it Improve Your Faith?

The data is mixed!

34 studies– 14: significant disruption of faith– 12: mixed evidence– 8: positive impact

Clues? Age, context, culture, educationDon Walker (Regent)

Page 16: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Positive Religious Coping

• Derive meaning and purpose from worship and engagement of the Sacred

• Connect to others: Community bonding

Page 17: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

David Brooks, Theologian?

Suffering calls us to :– Accept personal limits– Acknowledge self-deception– Answer the call to the greater good– Submit to the moral drama of life

Page 18: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

It is a Community Effort!

Community helps• re-telling of stories • point to transcendence

Page 19: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Related Concepts?

• Posttraumatic growth– New identities, capacities, meaning

(≠ absence of suffering and symptoms!)

• Resilience– “Personal moral compass”

• Cognitive flexibility– Live with ambiguity: lessens spiritual

struggles

Page 20: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Faith and Pathology?

Not all faith responses are helpful– Desecration…rejection…angry/ominous– Passive spiritual responses

• Predicts depression• Accounts for 50% of trauma variance (Falb &

Pargament)

Page 21: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Soften problematic beliefs?

“…cognitive techniques aimed at softening client beliefs about right and wrong or disputing the validity of the client’s guilt might paradoxically deprive a religiously committed client of rituals such as the confession of sin as an avenue to grace.”

W. Brad Johnson (USNA)

Page 22: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Soften problematic beliefs?

“therapists who strip away the language of sin from Christian clients may unwittingly take away a source of peace and hope by foreclosing the possibility of grace and forgiveness.”

Mark R. McMinn (George Fox U.)

Page 23: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

2. RECOGNIZE AND VALUE FAITH COMMUNITY WORK IN TRAUMA RECOVERY

Objectives:

Brief Review of Spiritual Interventions

Lament in Special Focus

Faith Community in Trauma Recovery: Exemplars

Page 24: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Spiritually Integrated Interventions

• Mind/Body interventions– Yoga; Tai Chi; Mindful attention

• Prayer/Meditation– Yogic meditation; Transcendental

Meditation/Sacred word; Prayer

Page 25: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

EPP and Health Professionals

• Passage meditation• Repetition of holy word/mantram• Slowing down• One point attention• Training the senses• Putting others first• Spiritual association• Inspirational reading

Doug Oman, Oakland Public Health Institute

Page 26: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Sacred Texts: Laments

Purpose:– Complaints about injustice and loss– Questioning God– Asking for rescue, calling on promises– Waiting expectantly

Page 27: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Benefit of Laments?

Increased communion and intimacy

Kim Snow

Holding communion and complaint together in our “winter of faith”

R. Beck

Page 28: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Elie Wiesel on Lament

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest.

Sometimes I’ve been closer to him for that reason.

Night

Page 29: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

My Brag Board

Page 30: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Good Reads

Page 31: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

RECOMMENDATIONS

For Faith Communities (FC)

For Mental Health (MH)

Sample Article Titles:

•Spirituality in Clinical Practice•Spiritual Functioning Among Veterans Seeking Residential Treatment for PTSD•The Morally-Injured Veteran•Spiritually Oriented Disaster Psychology•Anger Concepts and Anger Reduction Method in Theravada Buddhism•Enchanted Agnosticism

Page 32: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Next Steps for the FC

• Self-examination; Admit fears and biases• Develop whole body perspectives of

trauma• Educate communities about value of MH

– Encourage empirical evaluation

Page 33: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Next Steps for the FC

• Build relationships with MHPs and other FCs

• Re-capture spiritual practices that support trauma recovery

Page 34: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Next Steps for MH

• Identify biases• Respect religiously committed

individuals– Inquire about faith with every client– Avoid marginalizing spiritual healing

practices

Page 35: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Dialogue Topics

• What acts of faith/worship are most meaningful to you?

• What concerns do you have about your own faith practices?

• Concerns about my faith/spirituality?• What do you wish others understood

better about your beliefs?

Page 37: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Develop Competencies

• Develop spiritual/religious competencies– Seek out learning relationships with FC

leaders

Vieten, Scammel, Pilato, Ammondson, Pargament & Lukoff (2013). Spiritual and Religious Competencies for Psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5, 129-144

Learn 16 competencies

Page 38: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Cross-cultural Engagement

• Utilize literature, anthropology, and related disciplines to arrive at a more accurate view of person of faith

• Learn local “language” of distress and develop agreed upon goals

• Study local healing interventions and healers• Choose set of integrated interventions in order

to do no harmAdapted and modified from Siddarth Shah’s unpublished

essay on ethnomedical competence

Page 39: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Concluding Thought

What is your tendency?– Nihilism/despair– Messianism/presumption

Warren Kinghorn (Duke)

Page 40: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Despair?

Consider Job’s “friends”

Curse God and die!

When will you end this ranting?

Page 41: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

Presumption?

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give

you hope and a future”Jeremiah 29:11

Page 42: Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond

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