Help with Trauma

 

    People who have experienced Trauma need help.  They need someone to listen to them.  It is good if you have friends and family, but professional help of a stranger could be beneficial too.  If the trauma involves friends or family, then it is the best way to go.  Seek a Christian counselor or psychologist.  Ask around to find out who is recommended.  Also, it needs to be a counselor of the same sex.

    When you are helping a person dealing with trauma, you need to be open.  That means be willing to listen to anything and everything that they need to say without judging them.  The words that come out of their mouth may not be rational.  It is just part of the process of them dealing.

    Be a safe place for your trauma person.  Offer support that you are able to give, but no more than that.  It is better not to offer what what you can't give than for them to expect it and be let down again. At the same time accept them at where they are.  They will not react or behave the way you think you would.  Just make sure they know you are a trustworthy person.

    The most important thing you can do for a person dealing with trauma is to pray for them.  The more you know the more you can pray specifically.  Address their emotional level before you try to get into anything else.  Make sure you try your best to get the fact that God is there for them across to them where they can truly understand it.

    Honor the space that they tell you that they need.  If it requires legal support, then you will have to step up the time table a little.  Be there to help them deal with the police and medical process (if required).  The important thing is to portray compassion to help them feel safe and able to do what they have to do.

    It is important to use discernment and wisdom when dealing with trauma.  There are too many unstable factors to go at it on your own without any training.  You need to seek spiritual support to be spiritual support.  You need to understand their needs to be able to forgive some of their actions or words.  It is not ever easy, so don't blame them in the beginning.  Blame the abuse.  If it continues, then it will need to be addressed because no one has the right to be cruel.

    If you are dealing with a child that has been traumatized, then the most important thing you need to focus on is to make them feel loved.  They need to feel important, so make sure they know you chose to be there with them.  Make sure they know that you will not abandon them.  If they don't get this support early on, then it can lead to life long phycological and emotional issues.  They could become abusers themselves.  They have needs and need to feel needed too.

    When helping with trauma, you also have to deal with the abusers.  They have serious issues of their own to cause harm to other people.  Seek to make sure abusers are educated, held accountable, and restored to a better why of thinking and dealing with other people.

Psalm 34:18, 119:49-56, Matthew 9: 35-38, Romans 1:18-20, 3 John 1:2-4