Here’s me, doing my bit to participate weekly in Kelly’s Seven Quick Takes over at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

So here’s this week’s list of…

More Resources for Catholic Trauma Survivors

There is a LOT of stuff out there for survivors of clerical abuse. That’s a good thing. Just because the abuse you experienced and still suffer from was different from mine doesn’t mean you’re less deserving of help and healing!

1. But statistically there are more survivors of family abuse than survivors of abuse by Catholic priests.
2. That means we are in a unique position to learn from, support, and pray for each other.
3. We also walk through the same shadows and suffer many of the same health impairments as we live our adult lives.
4. There’s a recent study that shows that Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy provides better PTSD outcomes for survivors of child sexual abuse, so that’s good news, I hope.
5. There’s also another wonderful bit on attachment and addiction over at Catholic in Recovery (whom I LOVE).
6. If you are a trauma survivor of any kind but don’t have much personal experience with being on the crap end of racism (::raises hand::), here’s an article that offers a unique opportunity to method act your way into some empathy for the descendants of enslaved Americans: “What PTSD Tells Us About the History of Slavery.” Your experience might be limited by the color of your skin, but your empathy is only limited by your imagination and your humility.
7. Finally, here’s a video by Joe Sciambra interviewing Dan Burke about spiritual warfare and childhood trauma. Dan even touches on this week’s gospel’s message, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” #timely

Bonus #8 in progress: I’ve started creating a series of Sunday gospel reflection journal pages for trauma survivors. If you would like to join the beta testing team for those and receive free journaling pages next week through Advent 2020, please sign up here.

Try as I might, I can’t seem to find a single resource for Catholic survivors of family-of-origin based child abuse, sexual or otherwise. That can’t mean that this site is it. Can it? If it is, I feel incredibly unqualified to tackle the task of helping us find each other in communion with Christ’s Body on earth. If you know of some other resource, would you mind commenting with it below?

How are you holding up these days in your healing journey? It’s been tough here. Let me know how I may pray for you? Meanwhile, make sure you give Kelly & the SQT crew a look see.