Trauma and Religion, Essay Example

Aten, Jaime D., Walker, Donald F. (2012). Religion, Spirituality, and Trauma: An Introduction. Journal of Psychology & Theology Vol.40, No.4, 255-256.

In this brief analysis, Aten and Walker discuss the current research trends that people that experience trauma through some period in their lifetime look towards spirituality to deal with societal events. These traumatizing events includes, scandals, child abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide, which is among the highest of returning veterans. The recent natural disasters that have been detrimental in certain countries, and within the United States have placed greater attention on understanding how to treat trauma. The brief study conveys the increased in topics that have been investigated and the types of research methodologies that are being explored within this field. Even there has been an increase to the amount of research conducted on these correlations, this analysis from Aten and Walker (2012) adds to this growing realization.

This overview begins with Aten and Walker sharing in their events in their personal and professional lives, where trauma has affected them. Hurricane Katrina was an event that happened in Aten life after finishing graduate school. Just moving to Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina hit less than a week later. Throughout the horrific natural disaster, Aten saw first-hand the devastation and the traumatizing events where church and other individuals step into to care for trauma survivors, which depended on faith and spirituality as a means of helping survivors cope. Aten and his team of researchers conducted a two month study on religion and trauma dealing with Hurricane Katrina survivors. According to Aten, “it was this early experience after Hurricane Katrina—and years that followed of living in, studying, and working with communities affected by this disaster—that has led me to continue this work in other regions domestically and international, and ultimately to my involvement in this special volume.” (Aten, Walker, 2012) Walker, on the other hand, had experience dealing with child abuse treatment in mental health facilities. He recalls his research, in seeing a child abuse survivor beaten to the point that they had broken bones. Walker himself was traumatized, horrified, and shocked to know that a child that was only a short amount away from his family home was being abused. His linked to spirituality and trauma treatment began when he asked a child abuse survivor had they talked to God. Their response, had Walker questioned his entire education and training in responding to the survivor. Since that moment, Walker dedicated his professional life to trying to understand the correlation between healing from child abuse from the perspectives of the therapists and survivors.

Within this analysis, the team researches the link to traumatized victims and the response to pastorally and therapeutically for traumas. The duo speaks to the director of the National Child Protection Training Center that displays a theological model applied to child abuse survivors, and Everett L. Worthington and Diane Langberg to offer their expertise in self-forgiveness, in the treatment for veterans returning from war. The events of Haiti are used in examining the roles of spirituality in recovery, and present a case study for the therapeutic responses for adult abuse survivors. Religion and spirituality are examined in development of depression and PTSD among veterans and the treatment that is given. A more critical study that is examined is child abuse in the churches, and the coping methods for members of the clergy in their response to Hurricane Katrina. The team’ main goal of this study is to add to the understanding of the relationship between trauma, spirituality, and religion. The result is to help shine light on ways in which methods of treatment can be improved for healing trauma victims.

Farley, Yvonne R. (2007). Making the Connection. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 26:1, 1-15.

In this research, Farley writes on the relationship between the increases notions of spirituality as a significant factor of resiliency. Spirituality has become a popular concept in the social work filed and throughout the cultural environment in the United States. Many families and individuals turn to holistic alternatives for healing. The social work field has particular embraced the aspects of spirituality, but has not identified the ecological perspective. As of this indication, the role of spirituality has not been deeply studies in the consequences of incorporating spirituality in family daily lives. The aim of this study is to examine the role that spirituality plays in individuals; ability to be resilient in dealing with various types of trauma.

Farley provides a model of individual resiliency to deal with trauma that affects an entire family. The components of the model are examined with their compatibility with practices of spirituality. Farley provides a perspective from a practitioner, where she also provides case examples in various practice settings to demonstrate the application of religious or spiritual practices in the development of resiliency traits. Farley has had over twenty years in the social work profession with more than a decade of experience working with individuals recovering from trauma. The practice setting that she studies are set in non-profit family counseling centers, to psychiatric hospitals. (Farley, 2007) Farley, shares that the individuals she came in contact with,  wrestled with, “issues of healing from trauma, it often become apparent these clients were struggling with existential issues related to the meaning of suffering, the nature of good and evil, their own religious beliefs, and spirituality as a result of these experiences.” (Farley, 2007) She provides examples throughout her study that showcase specific cases of victims that dealt with life events that left them traumatized. This includes an example of middle aged women still dealing with childhood issues in her attempt to deal with parental neglect, and understanding how her parents could treat her like that. She drew from memories how her mother dealt with neglect and her father’s alcoholism, which led to verbal abuse. This abuse was then passed down to her, not in the form of verbal abuse but instead neglect. When the client was able to gain insight into what was going on with her mother, she was able to find peace in her childhood’s treatment, guided by her dependence on religious concepts of explaining the world. More cases discussed in the study, showed the relationship of dealing with trauma by turning to spiritually led by the practitioner.

Farley provider’s readers with an explanation of spirituality to help make a concrete definition, in order to explore the link to resiliency. She uses Canda and Furman’s (1999) definition of spirituality in social work literature as, “an aspect of a person or group dealing with a search for meaning, moral frameworks, and relationships with others, including ultimate reality.” (Farley, 2007) These definitions provide a clear picture on the connection of spirituality and religion to overlap in dealing with trauma. The first function of spirituality is their perception of the world that helps to shape their beliefs, ethics, and values. The last function relates the world and spirituality that help to provide sources to explaining difficult experiences that affects an individuals’ ability to be resilient. Resiliency is seen as person ability to push forward, towards growth, health, and to self-heal. Resiliency can be linked to a person’s ability to self-protect, and show characteristics of strength in a person’s spirituality. People have shown to look to spirituality and religious factors in their recovery process that includes providing a structure to understand events, methods to transcend the events, understanding good and evil, and methods for forgiveness. (Farley, 2007) The understanding of this study is to show how spirituality has been shown to be a fundamental aspect of resiliency and serves a mechanism for dealing with traumatizing events.

Krejci, Mark J., Thompson, Kevin M., Simonich, Heather, Crosby, Ross D., Donaldson, Mary Ann, Wonderlich, Stephen A., Mitchell, James E. (2004). Sexual Trauma, Spirituality, and Psychopathology. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 13:2, 85-103.

This study provides an assessment on the association between psychopathology and spirituality in sexual abuse victims. It provides a focus on the depth of spirituality as a way of treatment in sexual trauma as a part of psychopathology. This study takes a group of 71 sex trauma victims compared with a group of 25 controlled subjects to study their spiritual wellbeing, eating disorders, PTSD, and SCID. The data showed that in comparison, the two groups did not differ in terms of spirituality, however, sexual trauma victims did not have a significant impact on psychopathological outcomes.

Psychopathology resiliency is linked to childhood sexual abuse. There have been numerous studies on sexual abuse that show that over 20% of girls were asymptomatic after the childhood abuse. Past research has brought attention to the need for researchers to include asymptomatic factors as a component in studying childhood sexual abuse. While this is important, there has been far too little research on the aspect of religion or spirituality can protect victims against developing psychopathology.  Within this study, the team uses the definition of spirituality as the search for meaning through unity and connectedness for transcendence. While religiosity is defined as a search for spirituality through covenant with the faith community. (Krejci et al, 2004) Research has well documented the protective qualities of spirituality and religiosity for illnesses. It has been seen to be a positive impact with recovering from physical illnesses, mental health, and overall well-being. People’s attempt to cope through religious means helps in finding significance throughout their life for several issues. People turn to religion as a support mechanism for dealing with illnesses, through their church, and as a manner for self-enhancement, increased optimisms, and providing an illusion of control. While these aspects are seen as positive ways to cope with events, there has also been an increase to link these concepts of being detrimental. This is can be explained how people will relinquish fate to God, and out of their hands. This is seen in this case for examples in sexual abuse, which have demonstrated a negative impact. Many sex abuse victims that were abused by their family members saw God as punitive, and felt more anger and resentment towards God. This same group also found more difficulty in searching for the meaning and purpose to life, and had less involvement in religious communities than their peers. This points to results of people that were sexually abused by family members, to not find religion and spirituality as a means of coping. This study is aimed at finding the links between sexually abused victims low spiritually and development of psychopathology out of feelings of injustice and anger.

The group sets out to study the relationships between the victims and the presence of psychopathology. This is studied by the level of engagement in religious traditions or seeking out spiritual quests. The group asks these questions in determining the outcome: “(a) Does being sexually abused contribute to the probability of lower spirituality? (b) Is spirituality negatively associated with psychopathology outcomes? And (c) Does the association between sexual trauma status and psychopathology outcome differ on the basis of spirituality level?” (Krejci et al, 2004) The overall aim of the study in using the two control groups was determine whether spirituality acted as a positive or negative impact used in coping for sexual trauma victims in the increase or decrease of reporting psychopathology outcomes, in this case they were more likely to develop psychopathologies.

Smith, Stacy. (2004). Exploring the Interaction of Trauma and Spirituality. Traumatology 2004 10:231.

The purpose of this research was to discuss the relationship between spirituality and psychological trauma. More importantly how each concept affects the other and the impacts to treatment? The empirical study shows that in the past several decades, much research has been conducted on trying to understand the concepts of psychological trauma. As knowledge on the matter increase, it also gives rise to more difficult questions. Within the medical field, mental illness is viewed as a separate perspective from the soul and body. Treatment of mental illness must connect the two, as people within the field have just started to understand the complex nature and the relationships between the two. Religion has become a significant resource in several cultures, and it best seen in coping with traumas. Psychological trauma develops from traumatic experiences that include threats and other negative experiences where the person feels helpless, not in control of their lives, and afraid. Psychological trauma affects the overall wellbeing and the physical and mental health of an individual. The level of severity leads many that have psychological traumas to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) where people continue to experience the events through flashbacks, and tend to withdraw from situations. Within this study religion and spirituality as seen in separate connotations, where religion evokes and institutional, doctrinal, and authoritative systems. Religion helps people to structure and channel their beliefs in order to make sense of the word around them. Spirituality, however, creates a broader aspects of the images of God, and the ideals of experimental and paranormal dimensions. In regards to God, spirituality has less to do with worshiping but more of understanding the forces around them.

According to Smith, “trauma creates a condition whereby an individual is confronted with the underlying uncertainty and instability that encompasses human existence.” (Smith, 2004) Traumatic events forces people to acknowledge the unfairness in life. When people experiences these events they question good and evil, and the balance of powers, which infuses other spiritual issues. People that experience traumatic events can either go in a negative or positive way, where some act out in anger and resentment towards God. Why others seek out religious institutions to regain their faith in optimism. Whether negative or positive, traumatic events forces a person to seek to better understand meaning and purposes of life, and do a bit of soul searching. In regards to spirituality impact, trauma is best understood in a spiritual experience. Individuals are forced to reexamine the forces around them, their values, and their world views. People do not necessarily have to prescribe to religious beliefs, but they can embark on spiritual quests to reassess their understanding of the traumatic events. Smith further goes into the relationship of religion and spirituality benefits in trauma treatment. While this widely adopted as a self-applied treatment, many therapist has been uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the concepts. Many have neglected the area of seeking out treatments with spiritual and religious beliefs, for addressing the personality that is integral to the person. Many research feel that spiritual based treatment is left up to the members of the church, which has several advantages over traditional mental health facilities. In order to facilitate this type of treatment, members of the clergy must be on demand when dealing with an array of traumatic events; however, this has not been without much opposition. Much research needs to be conducted to see the benefits.

Harris, Irene J., Erbes, Christopher R., Engdahl, Brian E., Thuras, Paul, Murray-Swank, Nichole, Grace, Dixie, Ogden, Henry, Olson, Raymond H.A., Winskowski, Ann Marie, Bacon, Russ, Malec, Catherine, Campion, Kelsey, Le, TuVan. (2011). The Effectiveness of a Trauma-focused Spiritually Integrated Intervention for Veterans Exposed to Trauma. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 67:425-438.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) has come a long way in the treatments that encompass many psychotherapeutic approaches. In the line of research, there has been too few of studies that address the links of spirituality in dealing with traumatic experiences. Religion and spirituality deals with finding the ultimate purpose and truths of life. Many traumatic victims choose to seek out spiritual guidance in order to manage their situation. Research has shown that spiritual and religious intervention can go either way, but are both relevant in recovery. Research has shown that those that follow are more spiritual or religious path have a better pathway to recovery than those that do not. This research tries to show the benefits of using spiritual practices in order to deal with traumatic experiences. It has shown to help in recovery and aid in overall mental health.

Within this study, they used the method of Building Spiritual Strength (BSS) that is an inter-faith, manualized, eight part session of spiritual integrated group intervention. The methods are both available for regularly affected individuals, and veterans. The methods help to train the participants in using their preexisting faith beliefs to manage their trauma experiences. It is not a method of converting nonbelievers, but instead helps those that may have spiritual concerns to be utilized in a way to help deal with the impact. This method was designed to distress individuals while also helping to make a positive adjustment. More explicably, the BSS method is designed to help with those that have religious restraints, such as anger or resentment towards one’s Higher Power that can impact their overall mental health. The participants within this study veterans that are trauma survivors, that were recruited from the VA medical center through religious outreach programs. In total there were 54 veterans that interviewed, 48 were men, and 6 were women. From those participants, 33 were Protestants, 12 Catholics, and 9 that identified with other religious groups.  The procedure of the study involved those that experienced trauma, though were not at risk to themselves or others, and able to commit to attending the sessions without the influence on harmful substances. From the results of the group, the veterans had an average of 13 traumatic events throughout their military experience that ranged from motor vehicle accidents, sexual abuse as a child, sexual harassment, death threats, violence as a child, and other traumatic events. The results showed that the BSS method helped in reducing the symptoms of PSTD within the veterans.

These results are typical of past research that shows spiritual interventions has aided in helping victims cope with traumatic events. While not necessarily giving groundbreaking findings on spiritual interventions. It does further studies in developing other treatments in dealing with veterans and other individuals that are prone to suicide, depression, and other psychopathologies that are detrimental to one’s overall mental and physical health. The research conducted in this study points to methods that take the already established spiritual beliefs and practices and hone them to make a positive impact on the individual. This research is limited because it only shows a sub significant trend in how this method is beneficial to Caucasians, due to the majority of participants being White and male. There needs to be more research that studies the significance in developing alternatives to mental health treatment for women and minority groups. It suggest that future research be developed for a larger sample size for better results.

Based on the readings presented on trauma, religion, and spirituality, it shows great strides within the last decade that indicate a beneficial link to better mental health treatment. Largely religion and spirituality, have not been the most embraced practices within the medical field, where people can go to extremes in relying on one’s Higher Power to deliver them from ailments. It is seen throughout the news that parents and others have went to jail, while their loved ones have passed away because they sought to rely on religious beliefs instead of medical treatment. However, in the case of traumatic experiences, it has largely shown to be a positive impact on victims that look to these notions for an overall optimistic outlook on life. Based on these researches, there is a variance in traumatic events that people implement these concepts into their treatments.  In the first study Aten and Walker share in their first-hand experience with traumatic events, as they both worked one on one with victims of horrific natural disasters, and child abuse. In some cases, many victims of natural disasters turned to religious support in order to cope with what was going on around them. In other cases such as child abuse, many had resentment, because they felt that God disserted them. This was also apparent in Krejci et al. study, where the victims of family sexual abuse showed more signs of anger and resentment towards God. They turned away from the religious notions because in their cases, God was not a factor. This type of perspective can prove to be negative on the coping of one’s traumatic event, as seen in Smith’s study. The lack of support whether it be spiritual or religious hindered the healing process, and influence poor overall health. While it is not always the case that not believing in any religious or spiritual forces can be negative, research has supported the effects of those that turn to some type of spiritual or religious support, which show it can be positive.

These studies however, are limited in their scope. In those that develop empirical research their sample size was too small to make a broad statement on the impact of religion and spirituality in trauma treatment. However, there research does add a reference for future studies in developing better controls and variables when testing larger and more diverse sample sizes. The treatment for veterans should be thoroughly studied, as data in recent years shows that suicides are among the highest in these demographics. Traumatic events can take severe tolls on their mental health that can lead to PSTD, depression, and other lethal situations where treatment is necessary. These researches have shown positive correlations between spiritual intervention and methods of alternative treatments for veterans. This is critical in the mental health field, which is still much misunderstood to medical professionals and the public. In terms of child abuse, and sexual abuse victims, traumatic events affect them differently. In these events, they mostly feel afraid, alone, abandoned, and angry. Victims that experience these events as a child, have their innocence taken and have a harder time trying to find a meaningful understanding to their purpose in life. This leads to negative feelings towards religious institutions and practices. Treatment for these victims needs to be better researched, as therapy alone does not help. In trying to draw a relationship, more understandings from professionals must be given in order to reach these victims on a medical and spiritual level. For future studies, a better assessment of their mental health, as well, as their family’s mental health and background is beneficial into helping the victim come to turns with their traumatic events. In order for better correlations to be found for the three concepts, a clinical application based on sample size of child abuse, sexual child abuse, veterans, and others that have experienced traumatic events, need to be further researched on helping to find better treatments for trauma victims.

References

Aten, Jaime D., Walker, Donald F. (2012). Religion, Spirituality, and Trauma: An Introduction. Journal of Psychology & Theology Vol.40, No.4, 255-256.

Farley, Yvonne R. (2007). Making the Connection. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought,26:1, 1-15.

Harris, Irene J., Erbes, Christopher R., Engdahl, Brian E., Thuras, Paul, Murray-Swank, Nichole, Grace, Dixie, Ogden, Henry, Olson, Raymond H.A., Winskowski, Ann Marie, Bacon, Russ, Malec, Catherine, Campion, Kelsey, Le, TuVan. (2011). The Effectiveness of a Trauma-focused Spiritually Integrated Intervention for Veterans Exposed to Trauma. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 67:425-438.

Krejci, Mark J., Thompson, Kevin M., Simonich, Heather, Crosby, Ross D., Donaldson, Mary Ann, Wonderlich, Stephen A., Mitchell, James E. (2004). Sexual Trauma, Spirituality, and Psychopathology. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 13:2, 85-103.

Smith, Stacy. (2004). Exploring the Interaction of Trauma and Spirituality. Traumatology 2004 10:231.