Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Provide effective care for the members of your congregation suffering with PTSD!

This vital book is an overview of the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It examines the causes, manifestations, and problems of PTSD as they relate to a person socially, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Stressing hope, healing, and compassion, Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul includes specific suggestions for the prevention of traumatic events and for using peacemaking techniques to stop violence in your clients’lives.

Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a practical, understandable, professionally presented and researched working guide for clergy in parishes, for chaplains, and for seminarians who have little or no knowledge of how to pastor to people who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also for lay people who minister to those who have been traumatized. Survivors will also benefit from its affirmation for the spiritual component of healing.

This unique volume provides the practical means to support people through the healing process while maintaining their spiritual grounding, with:

• case studies that will help develop your skills
• a thoughtful discussion of the theological dimensions of trauma and suffering
• a practical methodology for crisis intervention
• an examination of the specific needs of veterans
• a look at the potential for caregiver burnout and how to prevent it
• ways that churches can contribute to the prevention of the trauma that leads to PTSD
• methods for using scripture as a source of healing for PTSD survivors

Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also defines PTSD from a mental health perspective and gives examples of the kinds of trauma that may lead to it. No one working with PTSD survivors in a spiritual setting should be without this book!