“Flare” (9)

the visible and invisible web of radical connection of everything to everything. The relational flow of the liminal; the life “in between.” The space of relationship. 

It has lots of names. In yoga and Ayurveda, it is called prāna. It’s the activity within the empty space between the dendrites of neurons, the exchange of gases in the alveoli of lungs. It’s the “not here” and “not there” that blend together to make “the present moment.” 

In brief, it is the energy of connection. 

(“Connection” is the key word for all the elements of my practice.)

the felt sense* of safe and nurturing connections with one’s Soma**, others, Spirit, and the planet. It’s the fullness of feeling alive.

*The felt sense is the fullness of being alive, whole, integrated.  First coined by Eugene Gendlin (Focusing, 1978) and significantly developed in the work of Peter Levine, it is often a pre-verbal sensation; it can be difficult to name, even by the most skilled poets.  It’s the inner knowledge and bodily-felt meaning.  It is a synthesis of awareness of bodily sensations, emotions, memories, and consciousness, but mostly carried by implicit knowing (that which you know but cannot yet fully experience or express). 

**I sometimes use the word “Self” and other times use “Soma.” In either case, I mean the unseparated totality of you: sensations, feelings, thoughts, body, mind, soul — you in your completeness.

a specialized and supportive relationship of compassionate, contemplative, and skillful listening between a spiritual director and spiritual directee with the sankalpa (sacred intention) of growing safe and nurturing connections within the Self and in our relationships with others, Spirit, and the planet. Modern and ever evolving, it is an ancient practice found within many of the Wisdom Traditions.

Spiritual Direction is similar to, but distinct from, psychotherapy and pastoral care. For me, the “sign-posts” of spiritual direction are satori (inner awakening), samadhi (integration/wholeness), shanti (inner peace), shalom (communal peace rooted in justice), and salaam (freedom from harm).

any technique or practice that increases our felt sense of safe and nurturing connections to Self, Spirit, others and/or the planet.

“Trauma” defies a single definition; these are a few sutras (threads) that hold the fabric of my experience and concept:

• a chronic state of disconnection (Porges);
• an experience that overwhelms our ability to cope and pushes us outside our Window of Tolerance (Dan Siegel);
• Many people have said it, but I first heard it from Esther Perel: trauma is anything too much, too soon, too fast. I would also add that it can result from too slow or absent. 
• The word “trauma” comes from a Greek word meaning “wound” or “penetration;” it was originally used only for physical injuries.
• The American Psychological Association’s definition of trauma is “an emotional response to a terrible event;” too limited, in my opinion. 
• Peter Levine emphasizes the “perception” of an event(s) as critical; he suggests that trauma lives more in the nervous system and the body than the event itself. I’ve frequently heard him say: “Trauma is not the event itself. It is what happens inside of us in the absence of an empathetic witness.”
• One of my favorite Bessel van der Kolk quotes is “the issue is in the tissue.” He means that trauma lives in our bodies.
• “Trauma is the nemesis of our lives. Sometimes it swamps us; at other times it haunts us. It is the fracture that stops us from running as we would wish,” Paul Valent, psychiatrist and child of Holocaust survivors.

Whatever else trauma may be, it is a wounding and bruising of our soul, our sacred core.  It leaves a mark, a residue, in the nervous system of our bodies and in the strained and severed connections within our communities (communal bodies).

Traumatology is the study of trauma, its effects, and methods to modify the effects. The study of trauma not only helps to repair the ruptures created by traumatic events, but can also strengthen us against trauma and significant stress.

In my opinion, to be trauma-informed is to center issues of safety, connection, and social engagement and to intentionally attend to the challenges of rupture and repair.  

“Trauma-informed” shapes a scope of practice. Educators can be “trauma-informed teachers.” Doctors can practice “trauma-informed medicine.” Pastors and chaplains can provide “trauma-informed pastoral care.” Leaders can have a trauma-informed lens and leadership-style.

My trauma-informed perspective is grounded in neuroscience and Wisdom Traditions, primarily:  

• applied polyvagal theory: the neuroscience of safety, connection, and social engagement.
• attachment theory: the affectional bonds between people, particularly in relation to safety, security, and protection.
• positive neuroplasticity: the science and practice of making sustainable change in the nervous system and increasing internal resources
• somatic internal family systems: a method of (re)integrating parts of our self that have been exiled
• Trauma-Informed Christianity: a hermeneutic of compassion (turning toward suffering) and resurrection (alchemizing suffering).
• Yoga and Ayurveda: ancient “trauma-informed” sciences indigenous to India; yoga is the “science of the mind” and Ayurveda is the “science of the body.” Both are pathways to restore union, integration, and balance — the very things disrupted by traumatic events. 

Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction (TISD) is a specialized method of spiritual direction

that seeks to establish, cultivate, and restore safety and connection 

to the strained or severed felt sense within the Self/Soma

and our relationships with others, Spirit, and the planet

through trauma-informed spiritual practices. 

Drawing from the deep wells of the Wisdom Traditions and modern neuroscience, it is a supported journey toward satori (inner awakening), samadhi (integration, wholeness), shanti (inner peace), shalom (communal peace rooted in justice), and salaam (freedom from harm).

The work of TISD takes patience, persistence, and the belief that restoration is possible.

It is an embodied practice grounded in contemplative curiosity and heart -courageous compassion, a turning toward our suffering, not away.  

A spiritual practice is any technique or practice that increases our felt sense of safe and nurturing connections to Self, Spirit, others and/or the planet (see above).

Trauma-Informed Spiritual Practices (TISP), in my scope of practice, intentionally utilize skills and techniques from my trauma-informed perspective (see above). They seek to establish, where absent, cultivate, where present, and restore, where damaged, a felt sense of safe and nurturing connection to one’s Soma, others, Spirit, and the planet. (Here again I mean “Soma” to be the fullness of our humanity.)

The techniques of TISP are an integration of modern neuroscience and the ancient Wisdom Traditions. Through small portions of education about their nervous system and in experiences of their body and breath attuned and aligned, spiritual directees can often (re)establish a sense of agency and cultivate self-compassion to restore the centering of their own inner Wisdom.

Guided by the foundational concept of “The Window of Tolerance,” a phrase I oft-use in my scope of practice is: a little a lot is better than a lot a little. TISPs are often micro-practices usually measured in micro-moments (a few breaths) that lead to micro-restorations. 

I have often heard Peter Levine say: 

"Trauma is a fact of life. 

It does not, however, have to be a life sentence. " 

I have already indicated that for my scope of practice for spiritual direction, the “sign-posts” are satori (inner awakening), samadhi (integration/wholeness), shanti (inner peace), shalom (communal peace rooted in justice), and salaam (freedom from harm). 

If I add-on the modifier “trauma-informed,” what might I then include as “aspirations” (the quotation marks are intended as a caution of the word “aspirations”). Here are just a few suggestions:

 No matter the form or means of trauma, agency (the ability to choose for our selves) has been violated. TISD makes extra effort to help the spiritual directee recover their sacred sense of agency: the Wisdom they seek is already within them; trauma disrupts their access to it.

If agency is the ability to choose for ourselves, then it is a necessary component of authenticity (attachment to our Self/Soma). 

We often sacrifice authenticity for pseudo-attachment to others. 

As TISD facilitates increased agency in spiritual directees, it creates a greater capacity for authenticity, and only then can sustainable attachment to others be formed.

Hurt people hurt people; desperate people do desperate things. These common sayings are painfully true. The cycle of trauma perpetuates itself. The weapon creates a wound and the wound creates a weapon.

I heard Resmaa Menakem say: “Time de-contextualizes trauma. Trauma in a person over time can look like personality. Trauma in a family over time can look like family traits. Trauma in a people over time can look like culture….the nervous system teaches the subsequent nervous systems (generations) how to organize and navigate.”

TISD can help disrupt and repair transgenerational and intergenerational trauma patterns. 

There is a type of Wisdom that can only be found in the desert wilderness; and there is a Wisdom that only arrives in the wounds of our suffering.

This is never intended to glorify suffering!

But in the alchemy, the transformation, of our suffering we ourselves are alchemized and transformed. In that process, Wisdom can be discerned and discovered. 

Redemptive empathy is a type of post-traumatic wisdom that has learned how to “presence” and “witness” the suffering of others. It is a stewardship of our own suffering that enables us to skillfully support others on their journey.

Empathy is not sympathy. Redemptive empathy is a heart courageous compassion that stands with another person without being consumed by their suffering.

Here is a blog post I wrote titled Redemptive Empathy.

The stress that comes from not being seen, heard, and safe for something fundamental to your person; an attack on your person for your social location. The stress comes from you simply trying to exist in the world against the tyranny of the “normative.”

Exactly what it sounds like:

• Persistent (intensity): keeps coming, despite your resistance; obstinate in its presence, a thick, shadowy pall that seems impervious to light;
• Invasive: intruding into the space of you, without your permission and usually over your objection; it’s in the air you breath, suffocating by its presence, leaving you with a subtle (or not subtle) felt sense of not being safe, feeling a potential for danger, even experiencing life threat;
• Chronic (frequency): happening regularly, recurring, repeating, frequent, can feel never-ending, sticky.

theologies that exclude and assert universal certainty instead of include and assert universal connection and community. Spiritual practices for the sake of bypassing instead of connecting, nurturing, and transforming.

a traumatic bruise or wound that comes from violating our sense of morality or witnessing others doing so. It calls into question ours and others’ fundamental goodness. 

Here is an article I wrote:  Moral Injury and the Pilgrimage of Moral Restoration.