Tagged With "Week Christian Healing Series"
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Trauma Informed Congregations - A Strategy Document
Hi Folks, I have recently been trained as an ACE Master Trainer through the Children's Trust of South Carolina . In the training we received materials from ACE Interface . My special interest is working with churches and ministries to educate and equip them to be better trauma-informed and to increase the resilience of members of their congregation and of the communities members they serve. Myself and another Master Trainer have presented information on ACEs to a small group of people at a...
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...
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A Florida ACEs Tour
RADICAL GRACE – WHAT I LET GOD SEE AND ACCEPT IN ME ALSO BECOMES WHAT I CAN SEE AND ACCEPT IN MYSELF. AND EVEN MORE, IT BECOMES THAT WHEREBY I SEE EVERYTHING ELSE. ~ RICHARD ROHR For the past three months, I’ve been driving through various parts of Florida witnessing events and gatherings of communities committed to creating safe, loving, trauma informed, and trauma healing spaces. On Friday February 22nd, I was in Tarpon Springs, attending the monthly gathering of Robin Saeger’s...
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A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
We are thrilled to announce the premiere of Wrestling Ghosts , a documentary about breaking the cycle of trauma, at the LA Film festival on Sept. 27th. “Incredible. Haunting and strange and beautiful and incredibly moving.” -Dan Cogan, Founder Impact Partners Wrestling Ghosts follows the epic inner journey of Kim, a young mother who, over two heartbreaking and inspiring years, battles the traumas from her past in order to create a new present and future for her and her family. In this...
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A New Resource on ACE
While research shows that being a part of a faith-based community increases emotional and even physical health, church members are neither exempt nor automatically healed from the impact of childhood and adult adversity. I have written an new book, Break EVERY Stinking Chain! Healing For Hidden Wounds , available on Amazon.com which discusses ACE in detail and integrates Christian scripture and faith as a means of recovery. It is currently available as an ebook and in paperback. I have been...
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A "Trauma-informed Lord's Prayer" by & for children, written in chapel at Intermountain
In a previous post , I explained that this fall I worked with the children on understanding and interpreting the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer, or "Our Father," posed many interesting opportunities to discuss themes that each and ever one of us struggle with. It was a challenge preparing a lesson for children with emotional disturbance dealing with complicated teachings in scripture. It was an exercise in combatting "Christian-ese" and the simple Sunday school answers (you know... when in...
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ACEs Science Champion Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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Add the ACEs Connection “shortcut” to your phone and help make the world more ACEs Science aware. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Stay current with ACEs Connection -- and easily share stories via social media and email -- by accessing ACEs Connection and/or your community’s home page on your phone. Adding an ACEs Connection shortcut to your phone works for iPhone and Android systems and makes staying logged in, checking in, and sharing out quick and easy, on-the-go! Community managers: Share this post with community members, as using the shortcut is a great way to help your members stay abreast of what’s going on! On...
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Advocacy centers help abuse victims tell their story, regain trust, heal [National Catholic Reporter]
WASHINGTON — On a long, low shelf at Safe Shores in downtown Washington, colorful figurines of wild animals, army soldiers, a winged dragon and an angel appear to be the toy collection of an overly neat child. It's the "sand tray room," where young survivors of sexual assault arrange figures in a tray of sand to tell stories about their experiences, often, too difficult to put into words. One 10-year-old girl, abused by her father, remained silent through five sessions of therapy. Only after...
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An ACES Presentation as a Sermon
My 45-minute Understanding ACES teaching was delivered on Sunday to a church in Rock Hill, South Carolina. This will be followed by a special weekly series that addresses the Christian/biblical solution to the many spiritual risk factors that stem from early life trauma.
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Author of "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks" study connects with the Arizona Trauma-Informed Faith Community
I was pleased to be able to connect with my friend and colleague in trauma-informed ministry, Sanghoon Yoo (@thefaithfulcity), a few weeks ago to present insights into how trauma-informed care connects with the heart of the Christian gospel. God is continuing to work through the amazing churches, pastors, ministry leaders, and participants in the Arizona Trauma-Informed Faith Initiative, and it was encouraging to see how many were able to turn out, even on a busy Monday afternoon. We...
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Bearing Witness to the Wounds of Internment (lionsroar.com)
In American Sutra, Williams, a professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, offers an account that is remarkable on several fronts. First, it is rich in ethnographic and historiographic detail. And although based primarily on historical records—including publications, official documents, correspondence, and journal entries—many of the cited sources provide first-person accounts, lending an approachable, human tone to the work. Much of...
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Building a Resilient Community (United Way of East Central Iowa)
ACES: Building a Resilient Community Childhood trauma has affected the majority of people in our community. Specific family problems as well as child abuse and neglect (summarized as Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACEs) have been shown to...
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Champions, cheerleaders, grandbuddies and mentors – oh my! How they can change a child’s life
Recently I read the book, “ Cheering for the Children ” by Casey Gwinn. This is an amazing book and while not written for church leaders or children’s ministers it is a worthwhile read to anyone...
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Chaplain Chris Haughee Interview
To quote a friend who just gave her testimony at our church about her own struggles with mental health misdiagnosis and recovery, she was told after her first hospitalization, “This won’t be the first time you deal with this.” Our trauma is always with us.
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Churches Own Thousands of Acres of Land Across the U.S., and Some See That as an Opportunities for Farming Projects to Help Students and Families (NationSwell.com)
Over the past decade, there has been a push for ecological conservation within the Christian faith , motivated by concerns over how climate change might impact human welfare. That movement has coincided with an uptick in the number of faith-based farms , many of which equate divinity with sweat equity and its bountiful results. Where those two movements intersect sits Plainsong Farm & Ministry , a community-supported agriculture farm and ministry, located outside of Rockford, Michigan.
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Confused
I'm a Christian. I scored (I can't remember exact) a very high number in the ACE's score. How do I reach out to the Church to enlighten others on this subject?
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Developing compassion for our neighbors and ourselves: trauma-informed faith
Even when we feel like God doesn’t hear us, he can guide our path to people and ideas that will resonate with our spirits and bring healing... The process of becoming trauma-informed can help us to develop compassion. We can overcome personal barriers that prevent us from reaching out to others in loving ways. We will be able to feel and share more of God’s love.
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Don't Just Treat the Symptoms!
Recently, I've been reading more and more about trauma and its impact on one's life and health. It's my appreciation that traumatic events or circumstances are wounds to one's spirit. And spiritual wounds require spiritual solutions. ...
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa Chats Live with Jane Stevens & You: Nov. 14th
Featured Guest: @Donna Jackson Nakazawa Topic: Well-Being, Self-Care & ACEs Date: November 14th, 2017 Time: 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST Where: Here / Chats Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an winning researcher, writer and public speaker on health and family issues. She explores the intersection between neuroscience, immunology, and the deepest inner workings of the human heart. Her most recent book, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal , examines...
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Empowered To Connect - worth forwarding
As a parent of 4 young children and career education professionals working in special education - my wife and I embarked on an "adoption journey" through a number of events several years ago. In addition to reading books, talking with other adoptive...
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Faith and Mental Health: Creating a culture of encounter and friendship
My article “Faith and mental health: Creating a culture of encounter and friendship” has been published in the May issue of Review & Expositor: An International Baptist Journal. Article introduces the Mental Health and Faith Community Partnership which the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition helped launch with the American Psychiatric Association and focuses on how congregations and faith leaders can work with psychiatrists and the mental health community to reduce stigma and...
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Finding healing after trauma: Elizabeth Smart (courtesy of Goalcast)
One of the most common questions I get from the trauma-affected children I serve is, "Why did God allow [insert really awful, tragic experience] to happen to me?" I imagine it's a question that most pastors, ministers, chaplains, and those Christians who share their faith with others face. It's fundamentally a relational question, not a theological one... and that's important to remember. The question is seeking the reason why a God who is Love could allow something that is experienced as...
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Footprints comforts children in grief [Statesman.com]
Footprints, a local children’s grief ministry, has been founded in order to help those age 6 to 18 cope with the death of a loved one. “It actually started out of a [Nurture Committee] at First United Methodist Church,” said Jim Ruth, one of the non-profit’s leaders. “We got a lot of things in place and rolling when we were a ministry of the church.” That ministry actually began in 2011 and more recently evolved into a full-fledged non-profit. Ruth...
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From suffering to triumph... learning through adversity during Lent
My approach to my own personal adversity and trauma has been deeply shaped by my spirituality. I grew up in a liturgical church, which means that we kept to something called the "Church calendar" which had seasons built into it for various readings, celebrations and observances. Every late winter brought with it the experience of "Ash Wednesday" that led into Lent, a time of self-examination, observance of disciplines and practices that framed human suffering into a larger context, a grand...
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Getting Proximate to Pain and Holding the Power of Love (dailygood.org)
KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: I was introduced to Lucas Johnson by the great civil rights elder, Vincent Harding. He told me that this young man embodies the genius of nonviolence for our century — nonviolence not as a withholding of violence, but as a way of being present. And it was a great pleasure to bring him together with Rami Nashashibi, a kindred force in the Muslim world. Lucas is based in Amsterdam. Rami’s center of gravity is the South Side of Chicago. They both are evolving the...
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Healing our Communities through Trauma Informed Ministries
Thirteen faith leaders, behavioral health providers, and community leaders gathered on August 12 in City Heights for an introduction to the science and practice of adverse childhood experiences, and to hear about an upcoming series of workshops about mental health services in their communities. The series, which is led by Pastor Jesus Sandoval, chair of the Faith Based Academy, intends to bring together 25 Hispanic and 25 African American ministries with staff from San Diego County's Health,...
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"Helping Kids Heal" Five Minutes with Chris Haughee from Covenant Companion
Five Minutes with Chris Haughee: Helping Kids Heal covenantcompanion.com /2018/04/16/five-minutes-with-chris-haughee-helping-kids-heal/ By Guest Author April 16, 2018 Chris Haughee Chris Haughee is a Covenant chaplain working at Intermountain Residential, an intensive residential program for children who demonstrate behavioral challenges with campuses in Helena and Kalispell, Montana. Chris and his family attend Headwaters Covenant Church in Helena. He writes about the ministry at...
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Influencer's Church of Cumming, GA Hosts Strategic Trauma and Abuse Recovery: A Detailed Map for Healing
Strategic Trauma and Abuse Recovery is an evidence-informed, spiritually integrated, structured process for conducting ACEs (trauma) recovery education and treatment. The Backbone of S.T.A.R. is The 3 Progressive Phases of Trauma and Abuse Recovery. These 3 phases are further broken down into 12 stages, which provides for transitions and breaks down the process in a simpler fashion. The stages provide a strategy for moving through the healing process, much like a map. It gives both providers...
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“Jesus didn’t live in a gated community” (salon.com)
This isn’t the first time in history that people who call themselves Christians have been doing awful things. It isn’t the first time many of us who still seek meaning in our faith find ourselves questioning what our belief system truly stands for in the real world. Yet it feels a particularly acute moment nonetheless, one in which the need to speak out against hypocrisy and injustice is stronger than it has been in recent memory, and when the temptation to bail on belief seems on many days...
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Jimmy Carter Makes One Final Push to End Racism [TheAtlantic.com]
Jimmy Carter, 91, has a wish for his fellow Baptists: end racism. “Our country is waking up now to the fact that we still have a long way to go in winning a battle that we thought was over in the 1970s or ’60s,” he said in an interview. The longtime Sunday school teacher and former United States president wants to start this change within his own faith: He’s pushing churches to organize around social-justice issues, including racial discrimination. But the future of progressive Christianity...
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Know Your ACE PLACE
What did you think about when you first learned about ACEs? If you have completed the 10-question ACE survey, you will know your score and might have some idea as to the score of your parents or your children. What is your perspective? Where do you stand? By placing yourself in one or more of the following categories, which I will call ACE PLACES, you will be taking the first step toward the healing and prevention of ACEs.
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Let Light Shine Out of Darkness: Leading and Loving in a World of Trauma and Suffering (Workshop)
THE CHURCH IS CALLED TO BE A HEALING PRESENCE IN THE WORLD. But the reality is that the world is filled with so much suffering, so much pain, and so much suffering that it can be overwhelming to a church and its leaders. Where do we begin? What happens if we get in over our heads? These are all real and important questions. THE BEST WAY FOR THE CHURCH TO BE THIS HEALING PRESENCE IN THE WORLD IS TO LEARN THE REALITIES OF THE SUFFERING THAT IS ALL AROUND THEM, BOTH OUTSIDE THE CHURCH AND...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Linda Ranson Jacobs, Bringing ACEs to Church Leaders
Linda Ranson Jacobs discovered the Kaiser-CDC ACE Study three years ago when she read how Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, changed its approach to disciplining students. Through her experience as a childcare provider and independent...
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Linear draft plan
Here's the draft version of the Trauma-Informed Congregations Community of Practice Linear Plan that Kimberly put together. You obviously can't read this screen-grab image, so open the document (the pdf is below), and add your feedback in the...
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Mass Shootings and ACES. Spiritual Issues Require Spiritual Solutions!
The primary solution to reducing the number of ‘mass shootings‘ and ‘hate crimes’ and ‘gun violence’ that occur in our country is not another policy or law.
The solution lies in getting to and addressing the root issues that are driving people to conduct these horrific crimes.
I believe the emphasis must be placed on prevention and healing at the deepest, personal level…. getting to the root of the problem at hand. By getting to the “heart” of the issue!
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Moving Beyond Trauma-Informed
There are four levels of development in treating psychological trauma. Being trauma-informed: This is a broad stroke meaning that you recognize that trauma is a pivotal experience in your client’s lives and yours. Adopting a trauma-informed approach: Now that you have recognition of the importance of trauma in your client’s life, you should want to make some changes in the way you practice. At this level, you need to make an intentional shift in your approach from one that asks, “What’s...
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My Tears in His Bottle: prayers from the heart of a special needs’ mom
Pat Hays has written a devotional book that gives wonderful insight into the joys and struggles that parenting a child with emotional special needs presents. Her book, My Tears in His Bottle: prayers from the heart of a special needs’ mom , contains excerpts from her personal prayer journal as she worked through the last fifteen years of balancing her calling to be an adoptive parent with the roadblocks she encountered in her neighborhood, friendships, school district, marriage, and church...
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Neuroscience helps explain our growing attraction to spiritual retreats (mercurynews.com)
As Americans report feeling more stressed and interest in mindfulness meditation, adult coloring and other calming techniques grows, more people are turning to spiritual retreats as a way to unplug and reset. In the last few years, revenue for “wellness tourism,” which includes meditation and other spiritual retreats, increased by 14 percent, from $494.1 billion in 2013 to $563.2 billion in 2015, a growth rate more than twice as fast as overall tourism expenditures, according to the Global...
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New ACEs Bible Study release "Family. It's Complicated"
New Christian Book by Rene Howitt and Tim Wesemann! Order Your Copy Today! Yahoo / Inbox The Good News New York <info@TheGoodNewsNewYork.com> To: renehowitt@cope24.com Jan 8 at 2:00 PM New Christian Book by Rene Howitt and Tim Wesemann ! Why are we so angry? Why is there so much dysfunction in our families? This Bible Study offers reactive solutions and brings to light information about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) by discussing dysfunctional similarities between families found...
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New and improved 2nd edition of the "Bruised Reeds & Smoldering Wicks" trauma-informed curriculum for churches now available!
I am pleased to announce that a NEW, 8-week version of the study, "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks," is now available. This 2nd edition includes input I received from the ACEsConnection community and others which resulted in two additional weeks of material. You still get the movie, "Paper Tigers," and the licensing to show it to up to 250 in an educational or religious setting, but there is much more... And, while a number of edits have gone into this second edition of the curriculum, my...
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New Mexico Catholic Bishops’ Open Letter: Children Come First [krwg.org]
Commentary: Yesterday, I received an open letter from some of our state legislators related to the support the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to give to the NM HJR1 2018 (Land Grant Fund Distributions). Since the letter is directed to the Conference, we three undersigned Catholic bishops of New Mexico are responding today. “ ‘Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth’ (1 Jn 3:18). These words of the Apostle John voice an imperative that...
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New publication on the Church and Mental Health
One of my responsibilities with the American Baptist Home Mission Societies is as executive editor of The Christian Citizen. I'm pleased to announce that the latest issue of our publication focusing on "Communities of Care: The Church and Mental...
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NEW YEAR. NEW YOU.
Take the road less traveled. As the New Year quickly approaches, many of us spend time in review and reflection of the past year’s events and initiate strategic planning for the upcoming year. We create and contemplate lists of resolutions, often featuring some of the same goals from the previous year. But we convince ourselves that this is going to be the year for change and transformation. 2 Corinthians 5: 17 " Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed...
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Notes from January 14, 2015 Trauma Informed Congregations Community of Practice conference call
Kimberly Konkel put together the notes from the call and asked me to post: 22 people participated: · Doug Ronshiem -- American Pastoral Counselors...
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Nurturing relationships in childhood boost adult mental health, relationships
We're proud to announce major research that suggests that positive childhood experiences — such as supportive family interactions, caring relationships with friends, and connections in the community — are associated with reductions in chances of adult depression and poor mental health, and increases in the chances of having healthy relationships in adulthood. This association was true even among those with a history of adverse childhood experiences.