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Trauma Recovery Training at a Seminary? Introducing Global Trauma Recovery Institute

suffering from the consequences of the trauma- child will benefit from understanding her expe-
tic events as more than two thirds of the popu- rience both from the eyes of a young girl as well
lation had lost family members and property as from the eyes of an adult woman. Gaining
as a result of the genocide and its aftermath. this new perspective helps to identify the many
Factors influencing the development of PTSD deceptions about the abuse and herself that
symptoms include the number and severity of commonly plague the adult victim. Christian
prior exposures to traumatic events, presence of counselors not only desire to help victims gain
other mental health problems, family or com- better human perspective on their experience,
munity social support after the trauma, capacity they also desire to help clients see their situa-
for resilience, and possible genetic or biologic tion from God’s perspective. Finally, therapy
influences (APA, 2013, p. 277-8). concludes when a victim is able to reconnect to
this new sense of self and reconnect to family
Standard Treatment Model: Stabilization, and community. While this therapy model is
Memory Processing, and Reconnection not linear (e.g., a client does not stop working
Most non-therapists imagine that counseling on developing mood stabilization once moving
after a traumatic event is essentially the telling into the memory processing phase), there is
of the story of the trauma in order to come to flow in moving from safety and self-efficacy to
peace with the story and to move on with life. re-engagement with the world. 3
Though oversimplified, there is some truth to
this idea. Victims do need to process what hap- The Role of Story in Trauma Recovery
pened to them, explore how the traumatic event
has influenced their sense of self, God, and the “Before Afghanistan, I used to…”
world, and find new meaning and purpose in “Since the genocide,
their lives again. In essence, they must discover I no longer have any family.”
that the story of their life is not over and they do “My church used to be a safe place for me.”
have a future in spite of the trauma. However,
too many therapists jump right to the proces- Recalling Albert Mohler’s quote at the begin-
sing of the trauma details (both too much and ning of this essay, story is the means by which
too soon) when victims are not yet able to tole- we make sense of ourselves. Our narratives are
rate engaging the memories without developing not merely the sum total of life experiences but
further negative symptoms such as dissociation a means by which we evaluate our past, present,
and other self-destructive behaviors. and future. Our narratives are the story we tell
Drs Diane Langberg and Judith Herman provi- ourselves about who we are and where we are
de excellent and more detailed examples of the going. However, some events are so powerful
standard treatment model for PTSD after inter- and traumatic that they alter existing personal
personal violence (Herman, 1992; Langberg, narratives and even alter identities. Victims feel
1997). Their models, though slightly different, disconnected from their former self, values, and
first walk with a victim through a period of sta- their prior relationships. Old ways of seeing
bilization so that the person might gain skill in self and the world no longer work. Crushed by
setting proper boundaries as well as managing some unnamed oppression, the writer of Psalm
symptoms such as anxiety, dissociation, temp- 42 remembers he once led the procession of
tations to self-harm, etc. Of highest importance worship (verse 4) but now only feels tears and
is that the client learns how to stay in the present agony. He is disconnected from his former nar-
rather than either disconnect through dissocia- rative. Like the psalmist, victims not only suffer
tion or relive the past trauma over and over.
Once the client is able to care well for self, the- 3 Not all trauma victims have the luxury of being “post”
rapy proceeds towards the work of processing trauma. For more on the treatment of continuous trau-
matic stress see the special issue of Peace & Conflict:
both trauma memories and meaning from a Journal of Peace Psychology, volume 19:2 (2013). Also,
new perspective. For example, a thirty-year-old Diane Langberg discusses coping and treatment foci for
woman having experienced sexual abuse as a ongoing trauma on this video: http://globaltraumareco-
very.org/working-with-chronic-ongoing-trauma/

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