Page 207 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

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

Together they explore what happens during women might have felt during and after their
those moments, what triggers these experi- suffering. She also considered God’s kindness
ences, and how to “return” to the session. Pa- to these women as well as the courage each wo-
tience chooses to look outside the counselor’s man expressed despite not being able to change
window at a large copper beach tree swaying in their history. Soon after, Patience began atten-
the breeze. When they do talk of the rape, the ding her classes, feeling an intense desire to not
counselor plans enough time to bring Patience be defined by her assault and a hope that God
back to the present by engaging her with questi- would bless her with a future as well. Sometime
ons about what she most loves about her culture later, in a sociology class, Patience sat through
(something Patience loves to do). a short movie about sex offenders. Though di-
At one session Patience wonders aloud whether sturbing to her, she left the class with a sense
she will ever be more than a “raped woman.” that the one who was spoiled was not herself
The counselor produces a long piece of ribbon but the perpetrator.
and asks Patience to imagine that the ribbon One particular concern plagued Patience, that
represents her entire life, past, present, and fu- of the fact that she couldn’t describe her attak-
ture. Together they mark a spot on the ribbon ker. She recalled how she felt, recalled his smell
that represents the present. In response to a and the color of his shirt, but could not recollect
few questions, Patience began recalling her life any facial features. As she walked around her
story beginning with her family’s emigration to campus during daylight hours, she would so-
the United States. She noted the births of her metimes wonder if she might cross paths with
siblings, the success of her father’s business, her her attacker and suddenly recognize him. With
American citizenship, and her full scholarship her counselor she explored the empty holes
to a prestigious university. For each of these and in the story and came to see, on her own, that
other positive experiences the counselor placed not seeing his face kept her from fearing men
a bright colored sticker along the ribbon. Pa- who looked like her attacker. Instead of a loss of
tience also told of difficult challenges: the dia- memory, she now counted it as a blessing from
gnosis of cancer in her favorite uncle, the death God.
of her grandmother, a significant experience of After a year or so, Patience returned to see the
racism during high school and her father’s pres- counselor. Her boyfriend had asked her father
sure to marry an older friend of the family from for her hand in marriage. Despite the father’s
their village back home. At these instances, the earlier wishes, he approved of their marriage.
counselor placed a dark sticker to represent Patience was both happy but afraid as she be-
such challenges, including that of the rape. The lieved her boyfriend would likely reject her if
counselor suggested that Patience take some he knew she had been raped. They weighed the
time to look at the whole ribbon and to com- benefits and drawbacks of telling her boyfriend
ment on what she noticed. Patience noted the but the counselor made it clear that though the
many positive symbols in her life, but also the rape had taken free-will from her, she now had
fact that a large portion of the ribbon represen- the power to decide who would and would not
ting her future still remained untouched. Pati- know about her trauma.
ence again lamented that she didn’t think she
could have a future now that she was, “spoiled.” Conclusion
Over the next few sessions, Patience and her Trauma-telling is more than recounting distres-
counselor discussed the loss of her virginity sing events in one’s life and hoping that verbali-
and found ways to lament this loss to God. Af- zing the pain will make it go away. It is a process
ter some time, the counselor asked Patience to of lamenting losses and re-framing life in light
do a study about distressed women of the bib- of those losses and the possibility of a future
le (e.g., Hagar, Leah, Ruth, Mary Magdalene) not fully controlled by the past. When coun-
and the kinds of future God gave them despite selors manage the trauma-telling process in the
not being able to change their past. For home- ways described above, clients often experience
work, Patience meditated on how each of these less distress during the counseling process and

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