420 | Meditating on Things Above: A Christian Response to Trauma

Over 75% of adults experience a traumatic event in their lifetime, yet fewer than 10% develop PTSD (Mills et al., 2011; Atwoli et al., 2015).  Many survivors, however, still struggle with trauma-related symptoms, including rumination- repeatedly asking “Why” or “What if” questions about the trauma in a perseverative, unhelpful manner (Michael et al., 2007). While rumination can initially serve as a cognitive avoidance strategy, it often worsens emotional distress (Bishop et al., 2017; Ehlers & Clark, 2000). In this workshop, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and medical professionals will examine mindful-based practices that have been developed to help trauma survivors reduce rumination by fostering key mental skills like attention, present-focus, awareness, and acceptance (Feldman et al., 2007). Participants will assess the practices that will encourage clients to non-judgmentally notice ruminative thoughts and redirect focus to the present moment (Blanke et al., 2020). Because mindfulness originates from the Buddhist religious tradition, many Christian trauma survivors may wish to turn to their own religious heritage to develop the requisite meditative strategies and corresponding mental skills to pivot from trauma-based rumination to the Trinitarian God of the Bible. During this presentations participants will outline an empirically supported faith-based intervention that uses four mental skills to help shift focus from trauma-based rumination to the Trinitarian God, drawing on Christian spiritual practices such as Puritan mediation, Brother Lawrence’s practice of God’s presence, and the Orthodox Jesus Prayer (Knabb et al., 2019-2022).