CCC 27-3

PASTORAL CARE

A Place of Safety Trauma fundamentally shakes our sense of safety in the world. Stephen Porges’ work on Polyvagal Theory has demonstrated the importance of a felt sense of safety and what happens when we feel unsafe. 3 In the context of the local church, a survivor must see and experience the Church as a place of safety. Pastors and church leaders can work to create a com munity that is genuinely safe and then intentionally communicate and demonstrate that safety. The local church also has an opportunity to provide immediate practical support in establishing physical safety for the survivor. Do they have a safe place to live? Are they protected? Are their basic needs being met? A trauma sur vivor must be physically, emotionally, and spiritually safe within the church community. Abuse of any kind cannot be allowed in a church that desires to be a place of healing. A Place to Tell Their Story Once a trauma survivor feels safe, they may need a place to tell their story. Given the overwhelming nature and physiological impact of trauma, many survivors are not able to pro cess the trauma-inducing event as it occurs. The event becomes a “missed encounter,” 4 something they can only begin to examine after the fact. It may require many retellings of the event for the survivor to begin to under stand what has happened to them. We see this, for example, in the rep etitious nature of the book of Job as Job struggles over and over to make sense of what he is enduring. We also see what happens when Job’s friends fail to listen well to his story. As pastors and church leaders, we can create space for survivors to tell their stories. It is not always easy, and it requires patience. We must be will ing to listen and listen well. As a trust ed listener, we have an opportunity to allow the survivor to share their story in the way they choose. Trauma impacts memory and language, and so the survivor’s story may shift and change. It may be confusing. It may

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Christian Counseling Connection 27