Spiritual Trauma

Many of us have encountered some type of hurt, harm, or even “trauma” from religion and spirituality. This could stem from dehumanizing theology, exclusion from church institutions based on our identities, spiritually manipulative relationships, and so on. We carry the pain of the past. And when that pain is associated with the Divine, a faith community, or our spirituality, it can leave us disenfranchised and fractured in a particularly troubling way. Many call this type of hurt spiritual and/or religious trauma. 

Now, there are many ways to define what trauma actually is, even among experts. From my understanding, trauma is when an event, experience, community, or environment wounds us in such a way that we lose our sense of safety, agency, and dignity. We might feel disconnected from ourselves, others, or God. Trauma—more than general hurt—lives in our bodies. While we might feel like our minds have processed through the harm, our bodies respond in a trauma (often fight-or-flight) state. This trauma response becomes problematic when we find ourselves living in the trauma or being triggered every day by the un-metabolized or incoherent experience of trauma of the past. Trauma hijacks our very basic sense of self. 

So, when trauma is combined with spirituality or religion . . . many of us not only lose our sense of self—our safety—but also might be catapulted into existential anxiety, despair, or aloneness. Spiritual and religious trauma hurt and leave us unraveled in a very distinct sense. 

How do we heal from spiritual and religious trauma? 

As a community, we are discovering healing together. We try to do our best to take a trauma-informed approach at Harbor (with the help of Dr. Shelly Rambo’s team at Boston University). 

One of the things we have learned is that to heal from trauma, we have to start with finding healing in our bodies. We have to restore safety, agency, and dignity in our bodies. If you’ve been at Harbor you’ll notice we often like to do that through embodying a liberating theology and reclaiming a healthy spirituality. We are not experts, but we do love learning from people on the road of spiritual healing and restoration. 

We are so excited that one of our community members is, in fact, an expert in leading people through healing from spiritual trauma. Joan Alexander is a licensed spiritual director who does this exact work and will be leading “Spiritual Trauma: Happening, Hurting, & Healing” on Saturday, May 6, at 12-1:30pm eastern. Here is a message from Joan to our Harbor community! 

————————

Join me for Spiritual Trauma: Happening, Hurting & Healing

Hi Harboristas!

I have met some of you at the Thursday gatherings and am looking forward to sharing a bit of my faith story (including my own experience of spiritual trauma) on May 6. I live in Saskatchewan, Canada, am married to Elizabeth (who is able to attend Harbor more than I have), and we have a little dog, Beau.

As a Spiritual Director/Companion, I have many clients that come with stories of trauma—all kinds of trauma. The focus of my studies and practice is on spiritual trauma—the place where our connections to G*d, Spirit, Prana, Divine, etc. may be broken. And so, a few years ago, I began to offer Spiritual Trauma: Happening, Hurting & Healing to groups in Canada & the US and, last year, at the Spiritual Directors International conference.

What will this interactive presentation be like? We will settle into a safe/brave space together—three “Voices” will share their trauma-stories and I will engage with each one—the poetry of Toko-pa Turner (Canadian author of Belonging) and the music of Alana Levandoski (another Canadian) will be woven through this presentation—and I will guide us in a healing somatic exercise. 

Harbor is hosting this presentation at no cost(!) to anyone who would like to attend. This is not just for Harboristas, so please share with anyone who may be interested! If you have any questions, please email me directly at alexander.joan9@gmail.com. 

Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. To register, email Dawn at dawn@onlineharbor.org.