Welcome to my class on religious trauma, or, more clearly, working through trauma that has occurred within a religious context. I don’t mean to be a smartass with the language, as the difference really is important to me for several reasons, and those reasons separate what I teach in this class from many others who offer help on this topic.
Principles:
What makes trauma unique is the person, not the circumstance. This means that each person will construct and live their life differently than others, and because of this, what does or doesn’t get experienced as trauma will be different for each person.
Trauma is the result of a combination of context and perception. Context matters because not every difficulty is or should be considered traumatic, and perception matters because many people can be in the same context, like a religious background, and not have those experiences be personally considered as traumatic.
How a person reacts to a traumatic experience, what behavior they build to deal with it, are all attempts at one, keeping themselves safe, and two, reorienting themselves in a way that helps them make sense of the world they perceive.
Behavioral reactions linked to trauma are, therefore, not a sign of you being broken, damaged, or somehow divorced from your humanity. They are, in fact, signs that you still care about life, your place in it, and are working at figuring out how to move forward in the best way you know how.
The function of those behaviors is where healing can begin, precisely because they are attempts at supporting what you still care about, the values that reside at the heart of who you are. The behaviors have consequences you want to move on from, like disconnection from others due to isolation. This doesn’t mean you’ve ceased caring about others, only that there are real concerns about harm to yourself.
Your humanity hasn’t been lost, nor was it ever taken from you, no matter what dogma may have said otherwise. You are now, have always been, and will always be, an amazing creature wading through an uncertain unfolding future, seeking, and sometimes yelling for, a space to have meaning and purpose. I hope to join you.
The above is a PDF of the slides for the introduction presentation. There are six lessons in total and they are accessible to all paid subscribers. If you have any questions, your paid subscription allows you to engage in posting questions, comments, and seeking support from the community of other subscribers, and I am active in that discussion.
