Tapestry of Wisdom: Trauma, a curated collection

These are some of the threads I’ve been following related to the topic of trauma. May curiosity and resonance be your guides as you explore this collection.

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a non-pathologizing way of seeing ourselves. Instead of singular-minded beings, IFS suggests we each have a Self and many parts. Our parts work together to protect us and keep us functional. When we experience great pain, some of our parts become exiled and carry our wounds. Other parts take protective roles, doing their best to keep us from being wounded again. According to IFS, the Self can never be wounded or destroyed. The path toward healing involves Self-leadership: becoming acquainted with our parts through curiosity, compassion, and appreciation, unburdening these parts, and welcoming their wisdom and participation in our lives.

  IFS and spiritual direction are similarly oriented. They both invite us to open to our belovedness with compassion. They are both about witnessing and listening.
  

  In his book, No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma & Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model, Dr. Richard C. Schwartz says, “How we relate to the inner world will be how we relate to the outer. If we can appreciate and have compassion for our parts, even the ones we’ve considered to be enemies, we can do the same for people who resemble them. On the other hand, if we disdain our parts, we’ll do the same with anyone who reminds us of them.”

  Schwartz’s book is accessible and offers exercises to begin to explore the model at your own pace.

• Aundi Kolber’s new book Strong Like Water was released last week. While this book is content-rich, this may be a resource that connects with you most if Christianity is your home faith. Aundi is a trauma therapist who offers concepts from neuroscience and trauma theories in language that is accessible. Through her own narrative lens as a Christian with a complex trauma history, Aundi offers compassionate, practical wisdom, weaving in scripture and prayer along the way.

  Here’s a quote from Strong Like Water: “Love changes us in ways fear and danger cannot.”

• A wonderful Instagram follow at the intersection of trauma and spirituality is @unravelingfree, an account created by two therapists (Casey Bain, MS, LPC & Kendra Hill, MA, LPC) who offer insight and wisdom related to deconstruction, religious trauma, and purity culture. Here’s a link to their website. Here's a link to one of Bain’s blog posts about religious trauma. I’m including a beautiful excerpt here :

  “I wholeheartedly believe that healthy spirituality and religion are possible. Rather than doing a deep dive into theology, how we got here, or what specific forms of Christianity might be more or less healthy, I’d like to leave you with something I wrote about how I feel now in my own experience of God and spirituality. I invite you to sit with it and see what comes up.

  You were fearfully and wonderfully made. We all have shadows, sins, and wounds that sometimes bleed out or onto others. God is not afraid of any part of you and is present with all of who you are. He created your body as good, and you can trust it. Your emotions and intuition are guides that can move you towards healing and wholeness. No matter what you’ve done or what’s been done to you, there is always hope in redemption and resurrection. Your sexuality is beautiful and deserves to be expressed and explored. You have nothing to fear beyond death. You are held by the Divine. Stay present, allow yourself to be surprised by wonder, cultivate empathy and connection. Anything can be worship. Everything is sacred.”

If you’re feeling curious about trauma-informed spiritual direction, I’d love to explore journeying together. I offer a free exploration session.