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Trauma

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Christianity and Psychiatry

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Abstract

This chapter explores how Christian patients’ spiritual resources can be effectively mobilized in trauma treatment, including by clinicians who do not share their patients’ faith. It will start with basic definitions of the terms integration, Christian, and trauma. This will be followed by a consideration of how the Bible views trauma. Next, I will outline neuroscience discoveries that establish the central place of the body in trauma, followed by what the Bible says about the body. Then, building on this foundation of compatible biblical and neuroscientific understandings, I will outline a treatment approach to trauma that starts with the body. The latter part of the chapter will consider common obstacles that may be encountered by Christians when presented with an integrated trauma therapy approach and how clinicians who do not share their clients’ faith can assist with overcoming these obstacles. Finally, on the positive side, this chapter outlines faith resources that Christian clients bring to therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrist in Private Practice in Ontario, Cambridge, ON, Canada

    Nadine Nyhus

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  1. Nadine Nyhus
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    John R. Peteet

  2. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    H. Steven Moffic

  3. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, Strand, London, UK

    Ahmed Hankir

  4. Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Harold G. Koenig

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Nyhus, N. (2021). Trauma. In: Peteet, J.R., Moffic, H.S., Hankir, A., Koenig, H.G. (eds) Christianity and Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80854-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80854-9_6

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