Post on 29-Dec-2015
Trauma and Healing: Faith Communities Respond
Philip G. Monroe, PsyD
Global Trauma Recovery Institute
Biblical Seminary
pmonroe@biblical.edu
Objectives
• Review trauma’s impact on faith• Recognize and value faith community
trauma recovery responses• Recommend next steps for improved
faith/mental health cooperation
1. REVIEW TRAUMA IMPACT ON FAITH EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION
Objectives:
Negative impact?
Positive impact?
Trauma Disrupts Faith/Identity
• Loss of meaning/connection• Existential angst• Spiritual struggles• Moral injury• Disconnection: faith and community• Special issue: Shame
PTSD and Meaning Loss
• Exposure• Intrusive symptoms• Avoidance responses• Hypervigilance• Negative mood/cognitions
Complex Trauma and Meaning
Prolonged interpersonal trauma?–Loss of Meaning and Purpose
• No longer believe life has purpose• Question religious beliefs
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)
Spiritual Struggles
Two categories– Discontent– Reappraisal
Relationship with trauma symptoms?
Jennifer Wortmann- University of CT
Moral Injury
War-related moral injuries– Weakened faith and increased guilt predict
greater usage of VA services
Fontana and Rosenbeck, VA National Center, 2004
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
Disconnected!
Now here I am Without myself
Bitter How can I go back
To whence I sprang?Mak Dizdar
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
Negative Impact on Spirituality?
Loss of meaning
Spiritual struggles
Moral injury
Disconnection: faith and community
And one more…
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
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)
Positive Religious Coping
• Derive meaning and purpose from worship and engagement of the Sacred
• Connect to others: Community bonding
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
It is a Community Effort!
Community helps• re-telling of stories • point to transcendence
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
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)
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)
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.)
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
Spiritually Integrated Interventions
• Mind/Body interventions– Yoga; Tai Chi; Mindful attention
• Prayer/Meditation– Yogic meditation; Transcendental
Meditation/Sacred word; Prayer
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
Sacred Texts: Laments
Purpose:– Complaints about injustice and loss– Questioning God– Asking for rescue, calling on promises– Waiting expectantly
Benefit of Laments?
Increased communion and intimacy
Kim Snow
Holding communion and complaint together in our “winter of faith”
R. Beck
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
My Brag Board
Good Reads
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
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
Next Steps for the FC
• Build relationships with MHPs and other FCs
• Re-capture spiritual practices that support trauma recovery
Next Steps for MH
• Identify biases• Respect religiously committed
individuals– Inquire about faith with every client– Avoid marginalizing spiritual healing
practices
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?
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
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
Concluding Thought
What is your tendency?– Nihilism/despair– Messianism/presumption
Warren Kinghorn (Duke)
Despair?
Consider Job’s “friends”
Curse God and die!
When will you end this ranting?
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
www.wisecounsel.wordpress.com
pmonroe@biblical.edu