The Trauma-Informed Church

The training is interactive and is designed to provide foundational knowledge, opportunities for further thinking, and a clear sense of what it might mean to be a trauma-informed church. This event is open to both clergy and laity.

Content of the course includes:

• Definition and history of trauma and trauma studies.

• The bio-social-cultural impact and effects of trauma on the body.

• Concepts of ‘healing’, ‘recovery’ and the post-traumatic remaking of the self.

• Overview of key work in trauma theology and biblical studies.

• Principles of trauma-informed practice.

• Trauma-informed pastoral and spiritual care.

Dr Karen O’Donnell is the Academic Dean at Westcott House and an affiliated lecturer in the Divinity Faculty, Cambridge University. She has been working in the field of trauma theology for over a decade and has published her research widely, including:

• Broken Bodies: The Eucharist, Mary and the Body in Trauma Theology. SCM Press, 2019.

• The Dark Womb: Re-Conceiving Theology through Reproductive Loss. SCM Press, 2022.

• Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivors. SCM Press, 2024.

• O’Donnell, Karen, and Katie Cross, eds. Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture & Church in Critical Perspective. SCM Press, 2020 and Bearing Witness: Intersectional Perspectives on Trauma Theology. SCM Press, 2022.