Trauma-Informed Spiritual Intervention

In addition to the natural overlap between mental health themes and principles found in Christian spirituality, Trauma-Informed Spiritual Intervention addresses critical considerations:

- Power dynamics inherent in discussions of faith and religion

- The influence of doctrine and spiritual beliefs on how individuals process information

- The need for an objective framework that helps professionals navigate their personal faith while maintaining professional boundaries and ethical practice

Trauma-Informed Spiritual Intervention equips professionals with a groundbreaking framework for integrating Christian faith into secular fields such as mental health care, counseling, and coaching. It provides critical insights into the complexities and implications of faith integration in these spaces.

Premise of Spiritual Intervention

This course examines the foundations of spiritual intervention across various belief systems, exploring the role, risks, and effects of doctrine in faith-integrated work. It also introduces learners to diverse religious perspectives, fostering sensitivity and understanding through a comparative lens with biblical Christianity.

Implications of Religious Trauma

Using trauma-informed care principles, learners analyze power dynamics, historical patterns of abuse, and the loss of safety within religious contexts. This exploration establishes the significance of religious trauma and the necessity of trauma-informed approaches in faith-integrated work.

The course emphasizes choice and collaboration, aligning trauma-informed principles with spiritual concepts of belief and agreement. This framework helps minimize spiritual bypassing, doctrinal enforcement, judgment, and culturally ingrained preaching and indoctrination methods.

Cultivating Safety

Learners explore theories of truth and belief formation, examining how experiences, personal conclusions, and perceptions of power and fate shape faith. This section also prepares professionals to recognize and navigate challenges with clients who unconsciously seek familiar but harmful religious dynamics in therapeutic spaces. Addressing these self-triggering patterns prevents disruptions in the healing process.

Framework for Practice

The course introduces inquiry-based direction, a method that facilitates the disclosure of deeply embedded beliefs often obscured by religious shame. By fostering open exploration, professionals help clients uncover root issues affecting both mental and spiritual health.

Objectives 

1. Analyze the interconnectedness of beliefs and spirituality in the healing process.

2. Recognize common approaches to spiritual intervention, identify their impact on safety, and restructure fundamental approach to engaging topics around spirituality

3. Describe the relationship between trauma and spirituality while applying key trauma-informed care principles, including choice, collaboration, and cultural competence.

4. Demonstrate inquiry-based direction as a framework to navigate culturally imposed principles in Christianity in relation to concepts of identity, restoration, suffering, and healing.