Church and Trauma: A Healthy Church Community Can Be A Place To Heal From Trauma
According the recent research, nearly half of all Americans have experienced one or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). ACES are traumatic experiences that occur in childhood that can lead to significant problems and symptoms in childhood, but also into adulthood. The more ACES the more likely the development of symptoms while an individual is still a child, but also when they grow into adults.
What are these ACES? Here is a quick list:
· Physical abuse
· Sexual abuse
· Emotional abuse
· Physical neglect
· Emotional neglect
· Intimate partner violence
· Mother treated violently
· Substance misuse within household
· Household mental illness
· Parental separation or divorce
· Incarcerated household member
The experience of frequent symptoms of the trauma from ACES is more common than most people think. It is likely that some or many of the people you know and work with on a daily basis silently or secretly suffer from symptoms of trauma and you don’t know. it may be that you experience some symptoms from past experiences. In fact, people who have ACES might not know that their anxiety, drinking, sexual issues, intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors etc are related to the past trauma. Further, these unwanted thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relational patterns might actually be their effort to cope with the past trauma. Sometimes what looks like the problem is actually an attempt at a solution to another problem that is hidden.
Church is a community of people who meet regularly around a shared spiritual belief and rehearse shared practices with shared meanings and support one another in each other’s suffering while also celebrating each other’s successes. People in these faith communities share a hope placed in the future that can invite today’s suffering to be tolerable or meaningful regardless of how painful it is.
There is much about a church community, a healthy church community, that can be healing for someone who has symptoms of trauma. Here are five aspects of church that can provide a buffer against the symptoms of trauma.
Connection
One of the powerful effects of the symptoms of trauma is its isolation. The symptoms can be so embarrassing or so bothersome that they can motivate a person to keep them secret. Sometimes the easiest way to keep something secret is to disconnect from people. Churches offer connection in community. Healthy churches offer levels of community in the form of large groups, small groups, and one on one relationships. One way that these levels of connection help is for individuals to be a part of something larger than themselves. Connection can add meaning and purpose to people’s lives. Another way connection in a healthy church community helps people dealing with symptoms of trauma is belonging to a group. When people are able to say, these are my people, it is a powerful identification that provides security and confidence. Finally, a healthy church community offers many onramps for individuals to have meaningful relationships that have space for sharing stories, even difficult stories, without shame.
Consistency
Having a predictable social practice or ritual is helpful for people who suffer symptoms of trauma. When many things in life are uncertain or ambiguous, a healthy church community meets regularly at a known time and place and engages in known practices: worship, prayer, reading of scripture, communion, sermon. This consistency can be an orienting or rooting experience for people and can help to set expectations of at least one thing good happening in the week. If all else fails, at least there is church.
Attunement
One of the symptoms of trauma is that the body gets out of attunement with rest of the self and with others. Congregational singing and corporate liturgical practices such reciting prayers or scripture together create a sense of shared practice and help to connect people with one another. When we all know the words and can perform the script together, all bodies are doing the same time. There is a de-isolating and physical experience that is also emotionally engaging and intellectually inviting. Congregational singing and liturgical practice attune people to one another in body, heart, and mind. Rather than isolated people who may be internally disjointed, corporate practice attunes people internally as well as collectively.
Hope
A healthy church community provides a meaningful message of hope. This message of hope has a sense of eternal hope in that a new heavens and new earth is rushing toward us and upon its full arrival will result in the redemption of all things, including the traumatic events people have experienced. Also, a healthy church community provides a message of hope close to the here and now. The message of hope is that, no matter what, no one has to be alone. There is an inclusion that is healing even if it cannot undo past trauma experiences. Finally, the message of hope includes the idea that God is invested in converting suffering into meaning and invites us to join in on that impulse.
Story
A healthy church community is a place where story matters. Each individual’s story matters. A healthy church community will have space for stories, even stories of trauma, to be told without shame or additional harm. Sometimes that space is in a large group, sometimes that space is in a small group, and sometimes that space is one on one. The space for story is a safe and compassionate context that does not hold connection hostage to the content of the story, but instead asserts connection regardless of story. Furthermore, the future hope and the here and now hope story permeating a healthy church community invites the specific story of the individual to join. Even though everyone’s story is unique, no one’s story is isolated.
A healthy church community can offer important social supports for people who have experienced traumatic experiences and suffering from related symptoms. Being an engaged member of a church can help a person heal. At the same time, a person who experiences symptoms related to trauma should not consider church alone to be sufficient for healing. Working with a therapist to heal the wounds of trauma is important and often necessary to make significant progress. A good therapist will highlight the value of social support that healthy churches excel in.