Trauma-Informed Pastoral Care: How to Respond When Things Fall Apart

by Karen A McClintock

Clergy are more likely than ever to be called on to respond to community trauma, sitting alongside trauma survivors after natural disasters, racial violence, and difficult losses. In Trauma-Informed Pastoral How to Respond When Things Fall Apart, pastoral psychologist Karen A. McClintock calls clergy to learn and practice "trauma-informed care" so they can respond with competence and confidence when life becomes overwhelming.

Weaving together the latest insights about trauma-informed care from the rapidly shifting disciplines of neuropsychology, counseling, and theology, she explains the body's instinctual stress patterns during and after trauma, guides readers through self-reflection and self-regulation in order to care for others and lower the risk of obtaining secondary trauma, and suggests culturally sensitive models for healing from overwhelming experiences.

McClintock particularly attends to the fact that across a lifetime in ministry, clergy accumulate and need to regularly heal multiple traumatic wounds. As a pastor and psychologist, she is perfectly positioned to help clergy recognize symptoms of trauma and commit to healing individual, community, and generational trauma with care and cultural sensitivity.

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2022

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

The personal stories are valuable as they provide insights into trauma responses. The call to clergy is also important. Most of the opening prayers were a bit too "zen" like. I had a few takeaways from the book but not too the extent I expected.

[BJ Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish this had been assigned in CPE.
I do worry that the definition of trauma becomes so expansive as to lose meaning (why not just say, 'everybody's got something'?) but well worth the read.

[Amy Ziettlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most helpful in this season of secondary trauma related to just reading the news.