Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care: Interventions for Safety, Meaning, Reconnection, and Justice

by Danielle Tumminio Hansen

Trauma pervades every part of human existence. From birth to death, there is no moment in which a human being is completely immune, with experts estimating that a majority of people will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.  


Danielle Tumminio Hansen offers a dynamic exploration of how trauma affects not just the physical and psychological lives of sufferers but also their spiritual well-being. Taking a feminist and intersectional approach, she considers how trauma challenges people both individually and collectively, while looking at tools spiritual caregivers can use to respond to it. Integrating theological wisdom with cutting-edge psychology, she offers targeted interventions to help trauma survivors restore their sense of safety, construct meaning, and reconnect with their communities. She also considers how restorative justice can be a tool to help trauma survivors voice their experiences and receive accountability in community.  


Tummino Hansen constructs a crucial resource, at once searingly honest and hopeful, that belongs on the bookshelf of every pastor, chaplain, and faith leader.

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 20, 2024

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for spiritual caregivers that offers suggestions to help those who have experienced trauma. Most importantly, it shares when to seek a therapist, and how a spiritual care provider can come alongside a therapist but not take their place.

[Racheal Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent companion for learning about the stages in trauma therapy and integrating personhood anew following trauma. It also is super easy to read and pretty short. 10/10

[Luke Hillier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really terrific primer on trauma and trauma-informed care that I'd definitely consider my go-to recommendation for anyone looking to better ground their spiritual care practice. It includes an engaging, accessible, and brief overview of trauma as a physiological, narrative, and spiritual crisis and also touches on the symptomatology of PTSD as well as secondary and intergenerational forms of trauma exposure. She draws from Judith Herman's work in Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror to structure the remainder of the book, with one chapter dedicated to supporting the re-establishment of a felt sense of safety, another on the work of collaborative meaning-making, and a third focused on reconnection with one's self and community. These follow an intuitive, thoughtful flow and each chapter features a host of applicable insights and approaches that feel actionable and able to be integrated into the work of spiritual care. There is an additional chapter on restorative justice that felt a bit shoe-horned to me, almost as if Tumminio Hansen needed to fill out a few more pages. It is certainly a slim book, but I think the concision is a strength here! I also give kudos for the writing occasionally indulging in a bit of poeticism at times; texts like these can be exceedingly straightforward or dry and I appreciated the subtle artfulness here.