Healing the Wounds of Trauma
by Karen Ferris
This is an interactive course deeply rooted in scripture that is intended to aid the church to help hurting people recover from trauma and loss in a way that is helpful rather than unhelpful. It provides an understanding of what trauma is and its impact, describing it as a heart wound. Each lesson presents what the bible and mental health best practices teach about how to heal from trauma.
In Northern Ireland, many people have experienced ethnic conflict, paramilitary activity, floods, car accidents, domestic abuse, crime and the loss of loved ones. Many have been wounded by these things, but not all scars are visible.
What is the church’s role in helping those that are suffering?
Clare and I had the privilege to host a pilot healing group with nine participants from Christian Guidelines, CAP, The link and House Church.
Over the three weeks we looked at the following core lessons.
If God loves us, why do we suffer?
What is a wound of the heart?
What can help our heart wounds heal?
What happens if someone is grieving?
Bringing our pain to the cross
How can we forgive others?
One of the most powerful tools that we learned and practiced was lament. Many of the Psalms are lament. In a lament, people pour out their complaints to God to persuade Him to act on their behalf, all the while stating their trust in Him. Lament allow a person to fully express their grief and even accuse God. This is often, but not always followed by a statement of trust in God. This makes for a very powerful prayer.
The healing group were given the homework of writing a lament. Some were prayers, some songs. They shared that they found writing their lament encouraged them to be honest with God, to speak truth about their deepest feelings and doubts. To lament is a sign of faith.
Our prayer is that as we apply the tools we learned in our own lives but also as we journey alongside others in a pastoral/counselling role and that by doing so it will bring healing and restoration.
