The Mission of Trauma Recovery

Making the Church a Safe Place for Victims The Mission of Trauma Recovery Philip G. Monroe, PsyD Biblical Seminary www.wisecounsel.wordpress.com

What is the heart of the Gospel? Right theology? Salvation story?

A better answer Justice Mercy

Gospel power • Isaiah 42 Justice to the nations Releases captives from prison Will not yield to another

And yet…mercy A bruised reed he will not break Guide blind over unfamiliar paths Make rough places smooth

The exchange • Isaiah 61:3 Beauty for ashes Praise for heaviness Now called trees of righteousness

True Gospel and the vulnerable? James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure And faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world

Thesis True Gospel ministry DEMANDS care for vulnerable populations How? • Understand experiences • Make the church a safer place for healing

Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Common Experiences as children AND adults

Factors that impact trauma reactions Background Support Level of Traumatic Response Traumatic Event Environment Resilience Factors Fawcett (2003), as cited by Boecker (2007)

Experiences as a child • Relational confusion • (IDENTITY) • Inability to predict or act toward future • (POWER) • Decreased capacity to express self • (VOICE)

As an adult: TORN! • Depressed…BUT • Panicked and anxious • Distrusting of others…BUT • Self-loathing • Withdrawing…BUT • Dependent

As an adult: TORN! • Emotionally shutdown…BUT • Reliving • Reticent…BUT • Impulsive • Afraid of the future…BUT • Afraid of the past

Anxiety Depression Trauma

Is it all in my head? • Consciousness/thoughts • Prefrontal cortex • Emotion processing • Limbic systems • Flight/fight/freeze • Brainstem

Remember what abuse does Oppresses Objectifies Deceives

Dangers in the church? Parishioners are expected to: • Trust and submit to leaders • Receive exhortation from leaders • Develop intimacy with each other • Receive healing

Making the Church a Safe Place for Trauma Victims Three Things Every Church Can Do!

3 Things you can do! • Listen and acknowledge • Promote safety • Promote connection to God

Listen and acknowledge If no one remembers a misdeed or names it publically, it remains invisible. To the outside observer, its victim is not a victim and its perpetrator is not a perpetrator; both are misperceived because the suffering of the one and the violence of the other go unseen. A double injustice occurs—the first when the original deed is done and the second when it disappears. MiroslavVolf, The End of Memory, p. 29

Listen and acknowledge • Take concerns seriously • Don’t minimize suffering and losses • Don’t talk too quickly of healing

Promote safety • Integrity in all things • Set and keep boundaries • Encourage voice

Promote a God who understands • Teach about God’s heart for the vulnerable • Teach about how God heals • Teach about how God responds to anxious people

2 Trajectories • Safety • Remembering • Mourning/lament • Reconnection • Hope • Silence • Forgetting • Forced reconciliation • Isolation • Fear Notice: the goal is not the removal of “getting past, over” or removing all signs of abuse

There IS healing! • Be present • Be watchful for day-by-day healing • Be ready to give (show) your reason for hope

Let your church be known for: Giving scandalous grace to victims even as we give the same to offenders

Resources! www.globaltraumarecovery.org www.dianelangberg.com www.wisecounsel.wordpress.com

The Mission of Trauma Recovery