Much of being trauma informed is being aware of possible past experiences that can inform how a person shows up to spiritual settings, like church or Bible study. “I do not make assumptions that God is safe,” Bartlett said.
“The words ‘God’ and ‘Father’ are extremely activating for many people who have had trauma, and so it informs everything in how I talk with a directee. I listen carefully for where attachment issues might be coming in at play, where spiritual abuse from leaders might be coming in at play.”
For Pater, trauma doesn’t fully go away. It is integrated into the other stories people believe about God. A helpful illustration, Pater finds, is in John 20: “The resurrected Jesus character there is still presented as a wounded character. He still has the wounds in his hands, even in his resurrected self,” said Pater. “The scars might remain, but we can integrate these stories into the weave of us and carry on.”
“Oftentimes, the trauma will come back in at another time because the person has been triggered in some way. But the difference with it coming back is that now the victim or the person who’s been harmed has a toolkit that they can draw on,” said Hansen.
Despite the damage of spiritual abuse, communities of faith can still be places where connection and safety are found. “I believe that churches can exist without spiritually abusing people, but they have to understand trauma for that to be true,” said McConnaughey.
“One of the things religion can do for us is give us rituals that we participate in as a community,” said Pater. “We can be vulnerable enough communities and ritualize our remembering and ritualize ceremonies of integration, ceremonies of healing, really, ceremonies of community.”
This article originally appeared here.
