Trauma-Informed Catholics

When Jesus came to Earth, He came to free people from the chains of sin. He came to bring healing and redemption. And, before He returned to Heaven in glory, He established His Church to continue His mission of healing, evangelization, and redemption.

In recent years, researchers have brought awareness to the reality that for many people in our world today, the effects of trauma prevent them from living as God intends. They have discovered that trauma can lead to devastating impacts on people’s mental and physical health, relationships, vocations, emotions, and actions.

They have also discovered that trauma is all too common. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, around 70% of all people have or will face some form of trauma in their lifetime (1).

What do these recent research findings have to do with the ministry of the Church?

First, they mean that the majority of those we minister to have or will face some form of trauma.

And, they mean that some of the things we encounter in our ministry, like addiction, vocational difficulties, mental health problems, patterns of sin, and difficulties relating to others, may be responses to trauma.

Together, these two implications mean that we need to keep trauma and its impacts in mind when designing and implementing our ministries, so that those who have faced trauma can best receive and participate in them.

As mentioned above, Jesus established the Church to continue His mission of healing. The research findings on trauma and its impacts mean that, today, the Church needs to work to help people find healing from trauma.

The good news: Through shifts in intentionality and simple tweaks, we can create ministry environments that help people to find healing, enabling us to do our part in the Church’s healing mission.

On Trauma-Informed Catholics, we aim to teach those working or volunteering in the Church’s ministry about trauma and its impacts, help them apply that knowledge to their ministries, and help them create ministries that help people to find healing after trauma.

The first way that we achieve these goals is through our free blog content in the following categories:

You will learn what adverse childhood experiences are and how trauma experienced in childhood can impact people at all points in their lives.

You will learn how to promote healing in your ministry and how to prevent trauma and its impacts through your ministry.

We also provide more information for creating a trauma-informed ministry through our free email course and weekly newsletter. You can sign up for those using the form below.