Well, I did a brief write-up of the Octaves Method last blog. I also encouraged you to get the book “Heal Thy Mind: 7 Strategies to Mental Wellness, Success, and Happiness. Now, I would like to start a new round of the Octaves method. Let’s review again, “O” is for observation. This practice is about cultivating your relationship with God. This practice is about your spirit and rediscovering this aspect. This practice is about meditation. This practice is about breathing. For some, this practice is about religion, and religion is a distraction for others.
I thought this blog should include trauma. You know the stuff I specialized in over the past 20 years. I have talked about “t” and “T” traumas. I have shared thoughts about how experiences can be traumatic for one and not for others. However, I think it is essential to talk about spiritual traumas. We are in the COVID pandemic. At least, that is what the news, CDC, and the pharmaceutical industry want me to believe. There is not a lot written or researched in terms of spiritual traumas.
Then the written stuff takes a different look and examines more about the challenges with religion and how this is traumatic. You know the things in the news when you see pictures of women isolated and tearful because of their faith. The stuff about kids, in particular boys and priests. The stories about women being circumcised in other countries. The things about suppressing one’s thoughts and behaviors in the name of God. The stuff that happens in Christian churches and general role assignments and sexuality expectations. I wanted to explore something different in terms of spiritual trauma. I first understood more about spiritual trauma when I met a young lady.
It was on a rainy day when Linda walked into my office. She was of average height, petite, and had long, straight black hair. Before seeing me, I first noticed how flawless her makeup was and how much time and effort she gave. As she entered the office, I immediately felt a sense of sadness. I’m talking about the deep, deep, painful sadness that is overwhelming. It wasn’t something that goes noticed by others. She presented very well. It was something that I experienced just by being in her presence.
Linda was self-referred and located me by some work I did many years ago. She noted she was looking for some answers in her life and felt that God was punishing her. She explained that her relationship with God has been problematic most of her life. She noted that early in life, she was born into a family that was abusive, emotionally unavailable, and consumed with drugs and alcohol. She said her community was filled with violence and criminal activity, and there were some unwritten rules she had to live by. Linda explained that her mother sold her to an aunt, Monica, at three years. You see, Monica had other children, but they were all grown up, and she wanted a cute little girl in the house. Linda noted that life continued to be filled with pain. Her sexual abuse began around six years of age by Matthew, Monica’s husband, and her uncle/whom she believed was her dad. She noted it went on for years. Linda reported incidents of sexual abuse that were disturbing. She said Matthew would be engaged in oral and sexual intercourse, and this began when she was about nine years of age. She felt confused as a child, but this form of sexual abuse shaped how she perceived herself, the world, and God. Matthew died, and she felt that was God’s blessing. She knew the abuse would stop, and she could go on with her life.
However, Monica, in the grieving process, could not function safely. She turned to drugs and overdosed on Cocaine shortly after Matthew’s death. Linda tried to revive her at the age of 10, but Monica died, and Linda felt she was to blame. Then she went into foster care. After many foster homes, group homes, and juvenile halls, life had little meaning. She didn’t like God. By 12 years of age, she couldn’t understand why God would have her experience these things in her life. So, she turned to drugs, alcohol, and suicide to end this pattern. She experienced God as hateful and abusive and didn’t want anything to do with God, religion, or spirituality. She noted she was atheist and if GOD did exist, Linda did not feel loved, celebrated, or special enough in the world she was living in.
In my profession, we would consider Linda to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). If I had worked with Linda when I was a newbie, I would have considered developmental and complex traumas as well. Developmental traumas impact a child during essential developmental stages and can often be the source of where treatment begins. Sometimes, you help your clients grow up developmentally with love, compassion, and celebrating their lives. Just think about your childhood. Did you have birthday parties? Did you get gifts from others that made you feel special? Did you get excited about growing older? Then there is the complex trauma. These traumas happen throughout your childhood. There are multiple incidents, so the mind-body-spirit gets confused and sometimes clusters experiences together. Complex traumas include more than one form of trauma. Yes, Linda would fit into these categories. Then as a clinician, I would develop a treatment plan to address the sexual abuse, abandonment, depression, attachment, neglect, maltreatment, physical abuse, and emotional abuse which happened early in childhood. Let’s not forget the grief and loss concerns associated with discovering your parents are extended family members. All of this would give Linda a PTSD diagnosis.
I would have missed something so significant—the spiritual trauma. There are many things about traumas, and spiritual trauma cuts down to the core of who you are. For Linda, this impacted her purpose. This is one of the most challenging treatment goals, but it is also something avoided within my profession. To all those in the mental health field, are you asking your clients more than just what their religion is? Are you genuinely becoming curious about your client’s relationship with Spirit? Are you curious about your client’s meaning of life, purpose while on Earth, or beliefs about the physical body?
You see, Linda has to work through the stuff between her and God. Yes, her aunt and, yes, her uncle were a factor, but under all that was her stuff with God. Yes, she had to work on the sexual abuse and how she perceived these experiences, but she mostly worked on the “why’s” with God. Yes, she had to work on death, but it was her stuff with God and finding the meaning of life underlying all of this.
Linda is like many people out there, even you. On some level, I’m sure you can relate to Linda’s struggle to understand the “why” stuff with God. Linda would not have made the progress she made until she was open to tackling this in psychological treatment.
I have heard of some pretty interesting situations families have put their children through, resulting in spiritual trauma. Some children still experience some form of exoticism. Many children are silenced and ultimately feel their voice is not important enough to be heard. There are children given blood to help purify the body. There are children forced to read the Bible and have to confess their role in the abuse done to them as a form of confession. Crazy hum. Now I’m seeing more about the forced medical shots knowns as COVID vaccines. For me, it is against my beliefs and my personal practice of doing what is right and upholding truth and justice. I have read research and still have many questions for the CDC and FDA that go unanswered. This goes against my spirit and my religion. The extent of these forms of practices is spiritually traumatic.
A spiritual trauma is something that disrupts the connection between the mind-body-spirit interconnection. This disruption forces the person out of balance. This imbalance makes one more vulnerable to other situations and experiences where different traumatic experiences occur.
I’m not an expert when it comes to spiritual traumas. I know it is essential to develop a mental wellness plan. If you are stuck here, ask for help, knowing real help is available when you are ready to receive it. If you feel there is some spiritual stuff going on after listening to this podcast, then get ready, get prepared, and start working on this.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about a spiritual trauma: 1. Are you working on your relationship with God? 2. Are you getting to know God in a new way, unlike before? 3. Do you feel loved, safe, trusting, and celebrated by something outside yourself? 4. Do you feel loved, safe, trusting, and celebrated by something within? 5. Are you able to forgive freely? 6. Do you believe there is something more for you after your physical body dies?
If you responded “no” to any of these questions, there is some work you can do. The resources are limited in terms of spiritual support. I am hesitant to suggest finding a guide, a guru, a priest, a pastor, a monk, or a psychotherapist. This spiritual stuff is tricky, and everyone is different. I suggest you start with you that you look deep within to find the answer. To ask upon God and listen to the messages you receive. I was persistent, and although I was sent down different paths, these paths got me to a place of spiritual connectedness.
I hope this information was helpful to many people. If you are a professional, I hope you are doing your work so your spiritual traumas don’t flow out to your clients. I hope as a professional; you are spiritually grounded in a place where you can be supported and “do no harm.” As a person struggling with spiritual traumas, I hope you stay persistent, learn to listen with a different ear, and continue to seek the truth as you develop your relationship with God.
Comments