A Trauma-Informed Posture

+ the Path Paved with Good Intentions

When I learned of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in about half of my undergraduates courses, I, like Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris, thought Why the hell aren’t more people talking about this?

I also did a cursory study of attachment science¹ and learned that the way children attach and relate to caregivers in childhood unquestionably influences how they interact and build relationships in adulthood. To add another layer, trauma-informed training and courses teach that for a child to overcome, build resiliency, and heal in the face of adversity—to overcome ACEs—one securely attached relationship to a caring adult will steady the storm and help foster healing.

To give you some background (and in case you didn’t watch the above video with Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris), ACEs are screened on a scale of 0-10, zero being no adversity. A score between 0 and 10 means a child has encountered an adverse experience, which can be parental divorce, physical abuse, emotional abuse, parental incarceration, and so on. A survey across 25 states found that 61% of the general population has an ACE score of at least 1. About 1 in 6 people you meet have an ACE score of 4 or more, which denotes severe adversity.

The higher a person’s ACE score, the greater the impact to their mind and body. A score of 4 or more means a person is 2.5 times more likely to develop lung disease, 4.5 times more likely to have depression, and they are 12 times more likely to be at risk for suicidality.² As Dr. Burke-Harris mentions, these stats are not only true because those with overwhelming trauma may cope with substances that negatively impact their health. These stats are true because, from childhood, those with a high ACE score have consistently experienced a flood of stress hormones that literally change their bodies, blood, and behavior. As their body works to overcome perceived threats, the stress is literally burning them out and wearing their organs down. Traumatic stress actually kills.

The problem is many children do not have one secure adult to steady them. And if attachment science is true, then those children grow into adults who struggle deeply in the face of adversity and find themselves sitting in the pews of church buildings today. And if the research ain’t lying, 1 in 6 people in local congregations today have an ACE score of 4 or more.

Why This Matters to Faith Leaders

The Church is often on the front line of mental health healing. It is where many wounded souls go for compassionate care. What’s encouraging is that there is empirical data, confirming that religious engagement does foster healing from traumatic stress and wounds.³ Many hurting people recovering from trauma do find the secure attachment they need within faith communities. If you’re tracking with me, then you realize this is what makes it all the more damaging when the local church causes traumatic wounds. This is why casting a light on spiritual abuse and religious trauma matters.

There is a low-bar for entry in the Church (as it should be). But I think the local church is often complicit in (at least) two types of harm related to traumatology:

1. Leaders and shepherds are looking at outward behavior, measuring faithfulness by the ability to fall in-line. But trauma impacts a person’s ability to keep it together. When people fall out-of-line, leaders often let correction and discipline trump the need for care and compassion. Harsh correction without wisdom and compassion compounds the trauma. And when this becomes a repeated pattern, when pastors refuse to slow down and listen to the bleat of their sheep, they run the risk of becoming the type of shepherd warned against in Ezekiel 34.

2. Because religious folk look at the ability to fall in-line as a marker of faithfulness, they neglect to see that some people cope (but not necessarily heal) by appearing to “fall in-line.” People with heavy trauma get really good at hiding and faking it til they make it. Mix in ambition and vigor coated in theological savvy (without evidence of good fruit), and we have what I believe describes many people we find in the pulpit today—traumatized individuals trying to heal themselves by virtue of their position through using the sheep in their care. They prematurely take on the seemingly altruistic mantle of shepherding in order to secure themselves rather than finding their security in Christ.

Much of Christian culture values fast, efficient growth over slow, effective, long-term healing. Trauma-uninformed leaders who ordain and commission new pastors do not stop long enough to understand the trauma story behind the behavior so long as the behavior continues to fall in-line. Outward behavior can mask misdeeds and how one might be secretly using (and abusing) their power. For many of us, the light bulb doesn’t come on until the abuse allegations break.

But trauma-informed training turns the light bulb on sooner.

---

Our churches and faith communities would become so much more effective in their care and compassion if humble leaders learned how toxic stress and adversity cause traumatic injury. It is the most vulnerable who likely have an ACE score of 4 or more. Trauma-informed care is more than a trendy phrase and term; it is the very wisdom we need to care for the least of these.

In Scripture, it was always the religious elite and people in positions of power who looked at the lowly and told them, “Come on! Try harder.” Jesus always bent his ear to the vulnerable and asked, “What do you need from me? How can I use my power to heal you?”

Bessel Van der Kolk writes that “[w]e are on the verge of becoming a trauma-conscious society.”⁴ My concern is that some faith leaders leverage (or toss aside) what little they know of trauma, blind themselves to their own limitations, and mix it in a cocktail of good intentions to only later become defensive when the sheep tell them they are poisoning others. So long as faith leaders remain well-intentioned but trauma-uninformed, their prescriptive advice will be more belladonna than balm.

If you work with, care for, or mingle among a very traumatized population, my encouragement to you is to see the Christ-coated compassion of trauma-informed care. Know that being trauma-informed is not isolated to helping professionals. The posture of becoming trauma-informed means you’re willing to embody the fruits of the Spirit. Effective (not efficient) care means, in faithfulness, you’re willing to humble yourself and patiently learn about peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control to joyfully love the neighbor in front of you. It means you will humbly hear when you’ve hurt others, and, instead of defensiveness (which is a trauma response, FWIW), you’ll operate out of a desire to make it right.

Those pushed into a spiritual hell will tell you they often arrive there on a path paved with good intentions by well-intentioned (and some not-so-well-intentioned) shepherds. If we really want to point to a good and beautiful way forward—a way that shows a Christ who bears with the broken—I hardly know a better way than posturing ourselves as humble servants, learning from the wounded as we wash their feet.

With you and for you,

@jenaiauman 🌾

---

Pursuing Trauma Informed Resources

I’m not going to encourage you to become trauma-informed without giving you resources to do just that. This is a starting place for pastors, faith leaders, and Bible teachers to take steps forward. However, many resources are still geared toward helping professions. I’ll list a few here, but they are by no means comprehensive. The best action is to commit to a life of trauma-informed learning:

• The Arizona Trauma Institute has several online courses including courses taught and led by BIPOC professionals on equity, diversity, and inclusion, historical trauma, and cultural competency. Depending on the course and your current credentials, you can also become certified through the Trauma Institute International. I recently completed the 10-hour training to become a nonclinical Certified Trauma Support Specialist (CTSS). This course (about $75 USD) is great for those looking for a primer of trauma information and the neuroscience involved in traumatic/toxic stress. You can choose to pay the additional fee ($50ish USD) and take the separate exam to become certified.

• The Inclusive Therapists have several on-demand workshop trainings for both clinical professional and those who want to learn more on trauma experienced within the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities and more.

• The Embody Lab has a mess of workshops on different healing modalities both for those healing and for those wanting to learn how to foster the healing of others.

• The Allender Center has a variety of workshops and trainings. Dan Allender has formatted the Narrative Focused Trauma Care training ($6200 USD) for not only clinical professionals, but also pastors, lay leaders, artists, and thinkers. *I plan on going through the course in the fall of 2023.

• The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching is an organization I’ve mentioned before. This is a 6-month certificate program ($2650 USD) that does prepare you to become a trauma recovery coach, but it is also an opportunity for pastors and leaders to learn more on incorporating trauma-informed care into their ministries. *I may register for the next course scheduled to begin in February 2023.

• Because environment plays a large role in trauma and healing, I recommend all leaders connect with a social worker (LCSW, LMSW) local to you. Social workers (or therapists with a MSW) have the most inherent trauma-informed training and education of all clinical professionals, and they typically work through courses on inter-partner violence and socioeconomic obstacles. A Google search of your area may render a few results, and a social worker near you may provide consultations and/or in-person trainings, helping you and your team become a more trauma-informed leader/organization.

• Lastly, you can check out the PESI catalogue for other online trainings and workshops. Again, many are geared toward clinical professionals, but you can find specific courses for different populations.

If you have additional resources, workshops, or trainings to add, please include them in the comments of this post. Adding them here will allow all readers in this community to have access.

---

Book Update 📖

I’ve dropped a few hints that I’ve been working on a book. That idea grew, taking shape and form, and I’m happy to say that my book proposal is done. 🙌

With any luck, my agent will be sending it to publishers this month.

If you’re looking for a rough synopsis, the book is on faith, healing, and the way forward after your faith journey has fallen apart. I’m writing it for those deconstructing, healing from spiritual abuse or religious trauma, and for those asking Does God see and care for me?

If you’re subscribed here and reading this, you’ll be the first to get any and all updates. If you know of a friend or family member who you think would feel seen by my small offering of words, consider forwarding this post to them and asking them to subscribe.

If you know of someone who wants book announcements, but isn’t interested in subscribing to a monthly newsletter, send them my book announcements link.

---

Creative Coaching & Support

(from a previous Substack post with added info)

Over the last year or so, I’ve met with many others, hearing and holding your stories as you shared your experience of abuse in the church. Many of you have become friends. Like those who caught me as I was careening after spiritual abuse, I’ve been grateful to stand-by and catch many of you. But I’ve realized the limits of my work.

I’m not a therapist. My bachelor’s is in Behavioral Health, but I realized clinical work was not wasn’t the path for me. My path is that of the artist and writer. The drumbeat at the core of my being is one that says, “Art is healing.” Words, paint, and music can take the broken pieces of our lives and make them whole.

With that in mind (and after working with my spiritual director and my own coach), I have begun to take steps to become a creative coach, specifically for those healing from trauma and hurt. I want to meet with those who find writing, painting, composing, etc., to be a healing outlet for them, even if their work never sees the light of day. To do this, I’ve been doing my due diligence in trauma certification, but my hope is to be a guide in art as an effort toward wholeness in your creative or professional life. My coaching work will not replace your relationship with your therapist. But I hope it will contribute to your transition from a life of surviving to thriving.

If you’d like to learn more, feel free to email me and tell me about the creative work you’re doing now or hope to do in the future. (The first few spaces I have reserved for BIPOC women writers, artists, and creatives.)

---

Donate & Support

I want to do what I can to make creative coaching accessible to those with limited resources. If you are not interested in coaching, but you have the means to donate and support another, please consider partnering with me through monetary contributions

I’m looking for monthly donors willing to contribute any amount. Every cent is tax-deductible through my partnering nonprofit, Fractured Atlas, who supports creatives providing services to their communities. They also oversee every single dollar I receive & make my coaching work possible.

---

In case you’re new here, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

If this post was helpful, considering tapping the heart 🖤 icon & leaving a comment. Your engagement helps me reach more people who may need a few words of hope. Encourage your friends to subscribe if it might be helpful for them.

You can find past posts from Letters for the Wilderness by visiting jenaiauman.substack.com.

1. My friend, Krispin Mayfield, wrote a great book on faith and attachment science, Attached to God, which is well-worth your consideration.

2. All stats can be found in Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’s TEDtalk or on the CDC’s informational page on ACEs.

3. You can see Yung Chen’s & Harold Koenig’s 2006 article in the Journal of Religious and Health. You may be able to access this peer-reviewed article for free through your local library. *If you run into dead-ends and cannot access it, feel free to email me.

4. This is from Bessel Van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score.