TRAUMA: 10 Reasons Why Christians Need to be Talking about It

Dr. Colson reveals ten reasons why Christians need to discuss trauma and its impact on people’s lives. She believes that trauma, especially in childhood, is one of the enemy’s main tools to block people from experiencing God’s grace, mercy, and love in their lives. It hardens people’s hearts to the idea that there could be a God, especially a loving God who cares about them and is for them. Suppose the enemy can get one person to deeply wound another through abuse, emotional neglect, addiction, or any other kind of adversity. In that case, he can step back and let the pain and bitterness change them, discoloring their view of God and plugging their ears to the call of the Holy Spirit. He can use it to isolate them in shame and fear, discouraging them from calling on God for help. If he can’t stop their salvation, he can limit their impact on others in the world and restrict their spiritual growth and participation in corporate worship or service.In the book's first part, she outlines her top ten reasons for talking about trauma in churches, Christian schools, counseling ministries, and others. She supports each description with research and statistics. She outlines the impact of trauma in people’s lives, including their spirituality, view of God, self, and others. Each of the ten reasons also includes suggestions for taking action to address that specific outcome.In the book’s second part, she discusses how to increase your ministry's trauma-informed care. Using professional guidelines for ethical and practical trauma care, she adapts the principles to Christian ministries that aren’t mental health centers. She gives examples for churches, schools, and small groups.Dr. Colson also includes some information on her Christian-integrated trauma treatment model. Most counseling approaches focus on visible symptoms, like behavior, conscious beliefs, and feelings. The most common theory is, if you change your thoughts and beliefs, you will change your feelings and behavior. Trauma-created beliefs are more insidious, how