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Trauma isn’t just sadness on steroids. It is not stepping on a Lego twice or forgetting to record your favorite show. Trauma is an event that goes beyond our ordinary capacity for coping and functioning. Trauma devastates. It dismantles. It goes to the heart of our most deeply held beliefs about God, the world, and our place in it. It hits us at the very core of who we are and what we believe and leaves us forever changed.

 

And so often the Church is unprepared for it.

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Trauma will find its way into the walls of our churches. When trauma survivors come to our churches, we need to be prepared to come alongside them and walk with them through their darkest days. As pastors, church leaders, and believers, there are specific things we can do to support trauma survivors and make our churches places of safety and healing.

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Seminars

Dr. Keener offers seminars based on her new book, Comfort in the Ashes, to assist churches and organizations in becoming trauma-informed and able to minister to trauma survivors in a healthy and biblical manner.

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Topics include:

• What is trauma?

• Recognizing trauma responses

• Basics of trusted listening

• Becoming a place of safety

• Accepting a survivor's story

• Being a community for survivors

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